Dollhouse 1972Bits of fabric, discarded small objects and personal momentos traditionally collected by women but seldom used or exhibited in public. The house is on a tall podium.
It is both house and shrine.
Rooms: nursery, artist studio
In the windows: grizzly bears, the kremlin
Artist's StudioThe house gives reminders of the constant danger of spiritual death that confronts the creative woman.
A private space made public.
In this piece, Schapiro and collaborator, Sherry Brody, made art of woman's lives. Their house validates the traditional activities of women.
The Seraglio RoomMerely to speak out, to describe the daily ways of your life, are political.
The images are from a variety of places on the web. Miriam Schapiro's dollhouse was included in the important installation Womanhouse 1972. It is now part of the Smithsonian collection. The text is from my 1995 journal.
4 comments:
That is really beautiful. I wish I could see it close up though. I am sure it is much better in person.
Hmmm. That last statement can be so true.
I love Miriam Shapiro's work. Have you seen the dollhouse in real life?
No Heather, I have not seen Miriam Schapiro's dollhouse in real life. In 1995 there were images in a book or magazine that I responded to. I had seen her work in the mid 80's and was very much influenced by the house images she used as a metaphor for woman. Im 1993 I explored these ideas in my own "house with the golden windows" installation. That I wrote in my journal about her work in 1995 shows to me that these ideas still rang true for me.
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