I am from that first generation who played with Barbie dolls. I was just the right age in the early 60s

when Barbie reached the shores of France and inundated Europe.

Fifty years later my Barbie dolls have transformed, but I still play with them. They have shed their sexy

looks, grown wings, sometimes fins, their sexy round forms covered by scales and armors. They have

become larvae digging their way out of the earth. Sometimes they have grown feathers and beaks,

spiked their hair and are living now in altogether different worlds.

This exhibition gathers 8 transformed Barbies in shadow boxes and lanterns, a giant poster illustrating

the Saga of Kami Mizu, and some posters and photographs of Barbie projects created in France.

There are two main stories presented in this show: The Saga of Kami Mizu (8 pieces) tells the story of a

Barbie transformed into a lobster after drowning to the bottom of the ocean. There she meets strange

creature half human-half lobsters, and fights her way back to firm ground after many adventures.

The second story lets us in the mythical world of the Bird Women, an ideal society where creatures who

are half bird- half women live in harmony in protected nest, far from men hunters. This series was

inspired by the Me-too movement.( One shadow-box and several photographs of two other projects)

Other pieces (3) were inspired by the Covid years. Barbie dolls have transformed into creatures living

underground, and illustrate the germs’ incubation and bugs’ metamorphosis processes.

Reception: Friday, Nov 15, 2024, 6:00-8:00 PM

Exhibition Dates: Nov 16 – Dec 15, 2024

Open Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Salem Arts Association Galleries, 159 Derby Street, Salem MA 01970

Contact gallery@salemarts.org with questions.