Art Hag

A major figure in the Pictures Generation group of artists, Laurie Simmons is known for using dolls, puppets, and ventriloquist dummies as "human surrogates" in her artwork. Back in the fall of 2009, Simmons ordered a life-size Love Doll from Japan. The creepily realistic Love Doll arrived to the artist's Connecticut home packed in a box wearing a flimsy, sheer slip. Oddly (though I guess with a life-size, latex sex doll anything goes...), she also came with a small box containing an engagement ring and her genitalia (vag-in-a-box!). The Love Doll: Days 1-30, on view at Salon 94 Bowery, documents Simmons' "photographic relationship" with the "human scale 'girl'"—the first large-scale, non-human figure the artist has shot. Weighing just about 60 pounds, the doll proved difficult to work with—not because she's a diva, but because she is much larger and heavier than the subjects Simmons normally employs. Her photographs show the doll in a variety of outfits posed "in an ongoing series of 'actions'" around the artist's house ranging from napping in the sun, playing with candy or costume jewelry, diving into a swimming pool, and hopping over a wall. Things went so well with the doll, a year later, Simmons ordered another one—a second model for the artist and a friend to interact with her inanimate muse. According to the show's press release, the Love Doll series not only references Simmons' previous "examinations of the dollhouse" in her work, "but also engages with adult fantasies and fetishes, infused with an even more potent sense of desire and regret."

The Love Doll series is like a fascinating peek into a haunted, life-size, Barbie Dream House. The meticulously composed images are both innocent and disturbing at the same time. You can also check out Simmons acting and playing house with her two daughters in Tiny Furniture, the debut feature film written and directed by the artist's older daughter, Lena Dunham. Filmed in the family's Tribeca loft, the story follows a post-college, young woman (Dunham) as she moves back home with her artist mother (Simmons) and her over-achieving younger sister (Grace Dunham). Proving that talent runs in the family, Dunham won the Best First Screenplay award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards this past Saturday. Learn more about Tiny Furniture at IMDb.com and check out a short Q&A with Simmons regarding the film at dwell.com. Learn more about The Love Doll: Days 1-30 at salon94.com and at nyt.com. Through March 26th.

Day 1 / Day 27 (New in Box), 2010