Dolls are pieces of material culture that embody and convey social beliefs and values. Since 2010, I have been creating dolls through a photo transfer process on fabric with my likeness. Blending sci-fiction, history, gender and race, the dolls draw from Caribbean and African mythologies, anthropology, popular culture and fashion to re-consider forgotten diasporic histories and re-image futures inclusive of those histories.
The creation of the dolls arose with my fascination with Bratz dolls. I grew up with Barbie dolls that were pretty generic and didn’t reflect who I was at the time, a common complaint of those dolls for young urban children. When the Bratz came out, these were dolls that reflected an urban identity that had not been seen before. While the Bratz evolved into a different type of phenomena, its initial impulse stayed with me and I wanted to create my own set of dolls but with a deeper understanding of those diasporic histories. The dolls do not always reference any group of people in particular but are an amalgamation of identities and histories. They are meant to be recognizable yet at the same time undefinable, creating a sense of wonder and curiosity.