Blow-up Doll Jackets by Sander Reijgers…
I customize existing tracksuit tops with parts of the blow-up dolls: the head, the breasts, the vagina, the anus. The doll is a means to convey something else. It’s near-incomprehensible that people could have sex with something as ugly and lifeless as a blow-up doll. However much air you pump into it, it remains an object that can’t reciprocate the feelings of lust.
The idea of doing something with blow-up dolls came to me after reading The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras. The main character of this novel is incapable of feelings for people, so he hires a woman hoping that sex with this woman will allow him to feel. I do the exact opposite with my work: I remove the sexual function of the dolls by turning them into a jacket or a bag. In this way, the doll can ‘feel’ by performing a normal day-to-day task, rather than through sex.In daily life, we are bombarded through the media and advertising with images of female nudity to stimulate consumerism. I comment on this situation through my art, but with humour and without being too moralistic about it. In addition, it’s a challenge for me to turn something empty and ugly like a sex doll into an esthetic object that can ellicit a positive response. My work isn’t about shocking people or about sex for the sake of sex. To me, sex is a means to make aesthetic, funny and multi-layered pieces.
