Russian Doll 2006, customised Russian dolls, variable dimensions
Russian Doll
Matreshki dolls, Babushka dolls or Russian dolls are the best known and most popular of all Russian souvenirs.
A Russian nested doll is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside another, they are also called stacking dolls. A set of Matreshki consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figure of the same sort inside. It has in turn another figure inside, and so on. The number of nested figures is usually six or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but little else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.
Matreshki are often designed to follow a particular theme, for instance peasant girls in traditional dress, but the theme can be almost anything, ranging from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.
In this case I used, as a starting point, the most traditional nesting doll design, a young Russian woman dressed in Russian native costume with a scarf on her head. Like the traditional nesting doll sets all of the dolls looked almost identical to one another. Keeping the largest doll unchanged, that also functions traditionally as the container, I have modified the five (contained) inside. Having sanded them, removed the existing painted image, I have repainted them with various motifs, from naïve to symbolic or abstract. I used a loose alchemical theme to inspire me in this new journey.
This work is a like a travelling exhibition or group show, it can be displayed in a variety of ways, open or closed.
Here is a Russian Doll sighting
