Pen Pen's Evangelion
A Pen Pen for your Thoughts
This section will just be for, basically random thoughts and feelings. Since my thought process is mostly random you can probably expect this to be updated frequently. Back to Previous Pennys. Back to Pen Penny.
Art Dolls
It is not every day that you come across a dynamic artist that can capture a movement, that certain timeless essence or one that can leave an immense impression upon it’s viewer by just the sight of it, one that astounds and conjures up thoughts and emotions at the same time. Today is also not that day, although a court in San Francisco may debate that. An appeals court rejected a copyright lawsuit filed by Mattel, the makers of the Barbie doll, against an artist who depicted nude dolls in danger of being attacked by household appliances. Yes, naked Barbie dolls in dire peril of being destroyed by kitchen appliances is indeed art. A series of 78 photos were made by “artist” (which is a term that can sometimes be used loosely, and yes this is one of those times) Thomas Forsythe and entitled “Food Chain Barbie.”
Now, I did manage to get a look of a few of these “art pieces” I guess would be appropriate to call them, although I call them photographs, or photos for those of us in the know. Anyways, there are some with a naked Barbie doll in a cup, another with a naked Barbie doll in a cup in the same position taken in slightly different lighting, a Barbie in a blender, two Barbie dolls in a blender, one Barbie each in four separate blenders, a Barbie in a malt maker, four Barbie dolls inside a lit oven wrapped in tortillas and covered with salsa in a casserole dish, and my personal favorite: a naked Barbie among grass and a pinecone with it’s hand raised like it’s waving at the camera rightly titled: “Nature Barbie.” Judge Harry Pregerson, the author of the ruling, also wrote, "It is not difficult to see the commentary that Forsythe intended or the harm that he perceived in Barbie's influence on gender roles and the position of women in society."
Now, I’m not exactly sure how a Barbie doll in a blender equates Barbie’s harm on gender roles, but maybe that‘s just me. To me, it’s a few amusing pictures of Barbie dolls about to be butchered and don’t hold any real artistic significance. Mattel argued that the pictures “impaired the market value of the Barbie doll.“ Apparently they didn’t get very much circulation, of course until the trials that is. He apparently made $3700 in sales of the photos, and more than half were to Mattel investigating him. Nice to know all I have to do to make a quick buck is take a few pictures of dolls or figurines in awkward positions and then sell them to the company that will later investigate me, and after the trial clears me of any wrong, I’ll have more circulation than ever and be renowned in the artistic community as the creepy guy with weird tastes.
One of the arguments made by Mattel was the “sexually provocative” nature of some of the photographs featuring “hot plastic on plastic action” (my quote). These could be used however in a new marketing campaign by Mattel. Perhaps a Nature Barbie line, where Mattel could save money and gain profits by providing no clothes for Barbie to wear with the original purchase and could then have expensive fur clothing that you could buy for your Barbie or make animals with removable skins and have a skinning kit available for Nature Barbie. Perhaps Mattel could team up with Taco Bell and use the photo “Barbie Enchiladas” as a key component of that marketing campaign. Perhaps a line of drinks for adults with naked Barbie dolls in them to challenge the long-held Parasol monopoly of putting things in beverages. Naked Barbie dolls equals profits, that’s all there is to it. -1/4/04
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