Kilner Jar Doll (1)

Medium: Dressed porcelain doll with soft body, Cotton Fabric, Polyester Stuffing, Chalk, Pastel.

Kilner Jar Doll (1) features a medium sized hacked doll wearing a sage green velvet and cream cotton dress with a lace collar, long cotton knickers and faux leather bootees. The original ‘pretty’ head has been replaced with an ‘ugly’ uncanny head. Over the head is attached a Kilner jar clip, like a strange tiara. This artwork is one of a collection of hacked dolls with replaced heads begun in 2023.

The work plays with ideas of the uncanniness of the ‘doll’ – its features are changed to be unlike the usual rigid mask-like prettiness of similar dolls, so that it appears to be less ‘human’ but more ‘alive’. The Kilner jar clip is a common household object, used here in a context of the face to create a feeling of unease.

The doll includes a metal stand.