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Life in the Dollhouse: Laurie Simmons’s Early Work as a Display of Constructed Hierarchies

Leffler, Laura Sutton

Abstract Details

2005, MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History.
This study examines the first three series of Laurie Simmons’s mature work, The Black Series (1976-78), Interiors (1978-79), and The Underwater Series (1980-81), as questioning patriarchal capitalism. Simmons unmasks our ostensibly organic American society to be a place, rather, of constructed and illusionary power. Capitalism, patriarchy, and the emptiness of consumer society have grown into existence together. They are, as such, inseparable. Simmons uses readymade dolls as subjects. She surrounds them with commodities and poses them in a mock home, a dollhouse. It is through these dollhouse photographs that she betrays the constructedness of society, and the hierarchies it sustains. This study traces the roots of Simmons’s work in conceptual, postmodern and feminist practices and shows her photographs within the dollhouse as devices that indict and reveal the operation of patriarchal capitalism and consumer fetishism.
Kimberly Paice (Advisor)
90 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Leffler, L. S. (2005). Life in the Dollhouse: Laurie Simmons’s Early Work as a Display of Constructed Hierarchies [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1116938975

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Leffler, Laura. Life in the Dollhouse: Laurie Simmons’s Early Work as a Display of Constructed Hierarchies. 2005. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1116938975.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Leffler, Laura. "Life in the Dollhouse: Laurie Simmons’s Early Work as a Display of Constructed Hierarchies." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1116938975

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)