Tamara Jones and Liz Page's lingering obsession with dolls kick Barbie outside of her Dream House and into the world of zombies, greasers and The White Stripes.
"I'd say 97 percent of our dolls have that counterculture vibe," Page said. "It's something a little closer to what we relate to, to what we're in to."
They rescue dolls from thrift stores, give them a good scrubbing and redesign their look to create their "Dolled Up Dolls." There are heavily tattooed vixens, Siamese twins and tributes to:
" Andy Warhol,
" Edie Sedgwick and
" Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O.
Their show at Book Beat's Electric Chair Gallery opens Saturday night and runs through Nov. 30.
PROCESS
The pair brings the dolls home and starts the cleaning process, which usually involves:
" scrubbing out stains and odd smells,
" combing out dreadlocks or other hairdressing disasters and
" deciding if the clothes can be reused.
Most dolls can be saved, and even if the majority of one is a lost cause, they sometimes can use body parts for some of their more macabre creations.
The pair would like to start designing dolls modeled after local musicians, Jones said, adding that there is a chance the results could be purchased by friends of the performers and used for evil.
"Maybe use it as a voodoo doll," Page said. "Hopefully, none of our dolls are being used for any kind of voodoo purposes, but a sale is a sale."
"?Charles Martin
