"Barbie" undergoes artsy makeover in San Francisco

Posted on August 14, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

The blond hair, pert nose and twinkling eyes of the shapely doll were unmistakably Barbie, but what was she doing attached to a prehistoric bug?

Welcome to San Francisco’s annual “Altered Barbie” exhibition, where the iconic doll of American pop culture is cut up, glued down, juxtaposed with all sorts of objects and transformed in a new mode of self-expression.

There is Barbie in a battle with an Iguana, Barbie and the Burning Bush, Barbie with a sex toy, Barbie dipped in polenta and Barbie posed languidly against a toaster.

“There’s the need to change her,” said Charlotte Davis, a festival co-founder who called the world’s best-known blond — apologies to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears — “just a blank canvas.” “She’s totally static. As a sculptor, I don’t like that. I like to change her.”

The joys of tinkering with Barbie has spurred a handful of shows in U.S. cities. Curator and co-founder of the San Francisco exhibit, Julie Andersen, said she’s been surprised by the number of three-dimensional artists who have embraced the idea of manipulating an America icon with a hot glue gun.

“Barbie” undergoes artsy makeover in San Francisco
ABS CBN News, Philippines