Watch what you say during your visit to the exhibit “My Life as a Doll.” Sculptor Tara Conley has been known to write down snippets of overheard conversation to use in her work. One phrase that made its way into “Doll” is “I only eat on Tuesday.” (It’s posted in the life-size closet, next to a clingy green dress.)
Conley paired up with writer Tria Wood to create the installation, which covers some 800 square feet and is made up of a series of life-size rooms. Each wall is actually an oversize page from a book, which details the life of a woman who lives as if she were a doll. Viewers see her surroundings but are left on their own to imagine the woman and her state of mind.
What’s it like living like a doll? Conley and Wood give us hints. For one thing, viewers see Guy, her husband, and their house, but not the woman herself (there’s only a silhouette of her in a mirror). For another, Conley has installed colorful flowers made of steel and ragged cotton in one room; they’re beautiful but cold and hard. And then there’s that little green dress… See “My Life as a Doll” from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. Through December 17. DiverseWorks, 1117 East Freeway. For information, call 713-223-8346 or visit
www.diverseworks.org. Free.
Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 11. Continues through Dec. 17, 2011
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2011.