creepy

I am officially scared.

Creative but creepy...

umm no. no. no. no. creepy personified.

i'm guessing only aging queens would be into this.

Whimsical? Kitcsh? Try GROSS!!! I'd suggest deleting this one and pretending like you never said anything about cupie dolls hanging from their necks on a chandelier as being an idea worth noting....it is like something you'd find out in Leatherface's backyard.

Ummm, hello...treating (representations of) women as "objects" strung up by their heads? It is a violent and disturbing image.

ghastly

YIKES!!!

This is soooooo weird.

Hopefully G.I. Joe and Ken will mount a rescue.

1. This creeps me out hardcore.

2. This also reminds me of when I was a kid and my older sister would tie my Barbies to the chain hanging from the ceiling fan.

That doesn't look whimsical in the kid's room. It looks like the stuff nightmare's are made of.

wow, confusednazgul, my brothers used to crucify my barbies on the front lawn

yeah i find this kinda creepy too

Is this from the AT tour of Dexter's house?

I'm glad I am not the only one freaked out by this. I am horrified that someone thought this is a good idea. Although there are plenty of people in this world that scare me. wow

hopefully some of you are burners and have seen the infamous barbie death camp, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/barbiedeathcamp/interesting/show/

Thank you Lord! I thought I was the only one completely freaked out by this....

I've always found dolls creepy... particularly porcelain dolls. And, since the world makes sure you get a double portion of what creeps you out, my grandmother made the most beautiful (thus most creepy) porcelain dolls in PR. Great... now I have to live with them.

I must say, I'm not that creeped out anymore by them, but this chandelier is a 10.9 on my creeped-out scale.

Saw this chandelier at the General Store in Fairfax (Marin Co.). Different, but not THAT bad...

Why is everyone allways so freaked out about everything? Please!

yeah are your stomachs all that weak? drop the drama.
they are DOLLSSSSSS and they are not being hanged.
i would actually prefer that they are less of the 'assorted' variety and maybe more coherent in dress.
i think this would be a fun addition to a dressing room (if i had like a huge dressing room).

KatiaG

The reason people are freaked out is because it is creepy.

Don't lie...you know that this is ULTRA creepy.

This is clearly not a trend worth defending unless you are actually inspired-which is hard to believe. These chandeliers are actually making me feel uneasy. Obviously the point of art is to evoke emotion in its observer so I can see an example of this placed in an art show making a social/political comment, but definitely not in a little girls room. Unless of course we would like to demonstrate the objectification of women at an earlier age than children are indeed exposed to already.

Just look at the bottom right hand photo: the outfits are reminiscent of 50's lingerie and luckily the dolls are wearing panties. Rather than a whimsical feeling, my mind keeps pushing me to remember Gia the supermodel turned druggie who died in her early 20’s. It must be the pale, barely clothed, and used appearance of each of these dolls. I know that these comments may seem extreme since children do not analyze things as much as adults do, but there are things from my childhood that I look back upon and think 'hmmm...probably should not have been exposed to that' although it seemed completely normal at the time. And let us remember that the majority of commentators here do not even feel this seems normal now.

Not to digress too much, but luckily the toy industry realized over the course of the 90’s that Barbie and other toys geared for girls need to reflect a positive image of women. So, rather than the once controversial ‘Pregnant Barbie’, we are seeing ‘Business Barbie’. If those grotesquely strung dolls had beautiful ball gowns on or were all dressed to represent career choices, the chandelier may be more appealing to most.

LISE

I'm curious to know what your thoughts were when seeing this? Based on your posting history this is way out of the blue.

Natalie

Awful. Repulsive. Revolting.

Honestly, I´m rather amused by the general reaction to this.

And Natalie, I don´t believe that dressing the dolls differently would change the opinion of the majority; the "hanging" (and maybe the dolls being female) seems to be the issue. (Allthough I, personally, would prefer pretty dresses on the dolls, or them to be naked, rather than have some weird undergarments)

This certainly seems more like an art project than a decoration element suitable for every household, but, I don´t see it as creepy and definetly not as an objectification of women!

Also, I see no difference here whether the dolls wear panties or not. They´re dolls.
Then again, in 70´s, in Finland, which is where I live, we had a serious conflict about Donald Duck the Disney cartoon character not wearing pants/ panties and how it is immoral. The cartoon was to be banned from public libraries and it was a matter of political discussion at the time.

Would this chandelier be equally offensive if made of, say, toy dogs?

nerli315 -- Quite honestly, it caught my eye when I was walking around the neighborhood. And, from the comments, it looks like it would have caught most of your eyes as well.

Like it or not, it's a pretty unique piece and I was surprised to find it pop up in so many other places...even in a decor mag. So for the Look! items (which are all things we spot while out and about), it seemed worthy of posting for others to review themselves.

It's not creepy, it's fun!
My ferret Bob's favorite toy is a Barbie head on a string.
It brings great joy to see him playing with it.

Stop making negatives out of everything.
We need to start laughing and enjoying more!!

Cheers!
Tamaralee

Being a guy, I never looked at Barbie as some kind of glamorous fantasy projection of myself; not being a weirdo, I never looked at her as a symbolic stand-in for Oppressed Woman; having only brothers, I never got into Barbie-abuse as a way of annoying my little sister; never having owned a doll of any kind, I don't have any kind of emotional response--positive or negative--to dolls in general. Not even Barbie. Certainly not to these generic figures.

So while I agree those chandeleiers--and those pink walls-- are cheesy, I don't find them particularly creepy. Certainly not "awful", not, at least, awful like the original cover for the Beatles Yesterday & Today. OK, that was awful. But this? Just tacky.

But, still, it's no tackier than the Barbie dolls dressed up in frilly dresses made out of pink or blue dry cleaner bags that I remember seeing in Clinton, Illinois in the early 6Os. And cetrtainly, not nearly as tacky as the Barbies wearing pastel-iced cakes shaped like fancy ball dresses that were a birthday-party specialty in the bakery department down at the Piggly Wiggly in the same period, and, offhand, I don't recall anybody ever objecting to the symbolism of little girls' licking icing off of Barbie's naked body.

Let's face it: Tackiness is to "good taste" as nitrogen is to oxygen: that is, it's everywhere, there's a lot more of it, and a good thing, too, because if everyone had good taste, the world would spontaneously combust.
Magnaverde.

My fiance's mom bought this exact chandelier for him as a Christmas present two years ago, no joke. (We were not yet living together, fyi.) She thought it was funny and kitschy, while we were literally rendered speechless. That doll chandelier will live on as a joke as to my mother-in-law's wacky taste for eternity, so for that reason it's priceless.

My first thought was all those Barbies together on the set of the Graham Norton Show.
Then I realized the chandelier dolls appear to be strung up by their necks.
WTF?

Yeah... that creeps the hell out of me. And I don't think I'd spend much time in a place that had one of those hanging up...

Perhaps the chandelier is an indictment of the ideal of the "perfect" woman that Barbie represents and this is an attempt to hang that ideal in effigy.

Or maybe it's just a facocta attempt at a kitschy chandelier.

I think it's funny like a cheap version of Rockettes or Busby Berkeley show - it would have to be in a certain spot to look right though. People are easily creeped out by the responses, but it's not like it's clowns or something really awful!

Great Idea.

Regarding my previous comment and those in response:

I do agree that it is a unique piece particularly from an analytical art perspective. Although I can not believe that it was featured in a decor mag. Other than it being weird, I just don't see how someone could pick this out as a decorative piece. Conversation starter-obviously...look at the discussion it has spurred here! Whether I like it or not is now void, I'm thoroughly enjoying the conversation.

" I see no difference here whether the dolls wear panties or not. They´re dolls. " KatiaG
-If that were the case, Ken and Barbie would still be mass produced without the imprints of undergarments. Growing up with Barbie, I remember getting a new Barbie and taking her day dress off to change her into an evening gown and low and behold she had imprinted panties. I then of course stripped down new Ken to see if his oddly shaped bump was still there and it was not. He too was now forced to wear tighty whities. Needless to say, their rendevouzs in the barbie camper no longer continued...
-So other than me being curious about sex very early on (and my career interests in reproductive research and sex therapy) what do you make of that? I think children are exposed to sexual inuendos very early on and the general public does not think about it. My major qualm with this piece is that we have no control over what a child will think and take from such a controversial piece.

" Would this chandelier be equally offensive if made of, say, toy dogs? " KatiaG
-Probably not because dogs are not humans.
-Would it be equally offensive if made of shirtless Ken? Naked pre-imprinted underwear Ken just hanging by his neck in a child's playroom or even in the hallway of someone's home? I absolutely think so. Although, I think people would see it more so vulgar than creepy because of the gender difference.
-I of course could be wrong here. What do you think?

" I don't recall anybody ever objecting to the symbolism of little girls' licking icing off of Barbie's naked body. " magnaverde
-I am not going to lie here...I have never seen that happen nor have I ever actually attended a child's bday party that had one of those cakes. For most people that would probably not be out of the ordinary. There is frosting on something - lick it off.
-But you physically putting that image into words makes it sound perverted. Don't you agree? Say that sentence out loud and think about it.

Natalie
p.s.- I hope no one took offense to anything I said. I am truly interested in hearing the opinions of others and I love to discuss...

I can see this on Terry Gilliam's office, not mine

[Nerli315, I can't speak for everyone else, but I wasn't offended by anything you said, and I totally agree with you that the filter of words can portray a single action in a multitude of various lights, not all of them good. That was, in fact, my point: that one's choice of words can throw into question actions (or, in this case, art projects) which, in fact, have no real "meaning" at all, let alone an unsavory meaning. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Same with Barbie. Same with Barbie cakes. Anyway, you're right: it's probably best to leave the whoile inferring-meanings-the-other-person-never-intended to the politicos. They're the experts at that. I try to stick to decorating.

BTW, when you said you'd never been to a party where Barbie appeared wearing a cake-&-icing gown, I wondered for a few minutes if perhaps such cakes weren't maybe just an early 6Os local phenomenon, kind of like plastic-bleach-bottle piggy banks & the dry-cleaner-bag-&-coat-hanger poodles, which were also popular in Clinton at the same time, but which I've never seen (thank heaven) anywhere else. Anyway, I did a Google search for a picture of a Barbie cake so I could at least show you what I was talking about. Well, it turns out they were not just a historical oddity like propeller beanies or one restricted to Illinois at all, they're still being made--although not at any bakery I shop at--and judging by the number of hits, it looks like they're pretty popular.

But then I wondered, "popular" compared to what?. So to find out, I did three other searches for two-word items that, might appear on a popular decorating blog, or at least, one where I happen to hang out. Here, for comparison, are my results:

Bertoia chair: 21,1OO hits
Marimekko fabric: 22,9OO hits
Tulip table: 36,6OO hits

Empire daybed: 19,8OO hits
Biedermeier mirror: 12,6OO hits
Chippendale sofa: 45,OOO hits

Barbie cake: 19O,OOO hits.

I'm not exactly sure what those figures say (see cautionary advice above) but I don't find those numbers very reassuring about where we all fall in the aesthetics food chain.]

Art? It's kitsch, and derivative at that. It's ugly, not all that well-executed (no pun intended) and certainly a conversation piece, if shrieks and cries of distress are conversation.

It is sickening and looks like a fire hazard.

A conversation piece par excellence!

" I see no difference here whether the dolls wear panties or not. They´re dolls. " KatiaG
"-If that were the case, Ken and Barbie would still be mass produced without the imprints of undergarments." Nerli315

I do wish they were still mass produced without those weird printed panties. Somehow, imprinted panties seem to take the focus to a "fact" that Barbie & Ken are "sexual" and "indecent" somehow, which is something that I believe would go innocently unnoticed on a child of 4-7 years of age, if not pointed out. Meaning, sexuality/ gender is rather natural to young children who run around naked thinking nothing of that, and happily lick barbie-shaped cakes (yack!), it only becomes a moral issue later, with the realisation of the rules and connotations and the general attitude towards things.

I think this sudden need to protect the privates of dolls is only one more sad example of the over-sexualisation of our age. An overreaction of some sort.
Also, I do realise that children, especially girls, seem to become teenagers earlier and earlier, which I think is sad too.
(Hmm. Now I feel my limited english skills limit the expression of my exact opinions.)

I'm european, we don't allways take sex/ morality issues so seriously here anyway. I certainly don't.

In general, I wish people would take relatively innocent things, like this chandellier, lightly and with some sense of humour, without attaching hidden meanings to them (hanged women!), and focus on the important issues instead. Like why we still raise boys and girls differently from the very start.

Oh boy. It's a chandelier that looks crappy. Why do people still feel the need to read into something so much. FYI not everyone wants to read comments that are the size of a book. I just skimmed through these.

i like it

actually, Tamaralee, i like your attitude

I'm trying to find out the manufacture of the doll chandelier !!!! Does anybody know..... love it. J

Very creative. I like it!