Laurie Simmons

Salon 94 is delighted to present “Kigurumi, Dollers, and How We See,” a new body of work from artist Laurie Simmons. Long known for exploring the conceptual and psychological subtext of doll play using figures, mannequins, doll parts and toys, the artist now examines the subculture of individuals who spend time masked and dressed as doll and animal characters. Unlike her previous series “The Love Doll/ Days 1-36” which focused on animating a Japanese love doll by staging scenes around a house, the new work captures real people who move and pose on their own.

Kigurumi is a Japanese form of cosplay (short for "costume play"), a performance art in which players wear costumes to represent a specific cartoon character, stuffed animal, or idea. This subset includes doll-like characters who dress up in Kigurumi masks and zentai (bodysuits or skin suits -- spandex “onesies” that cover the whole body including the face, hands and feet). Also known as “Dollers” or “Kiggers,” they attend public events in costume, sometimes as paid entertainers but more often to just “be” in character. Dollers frequently flip gender with men dressed as females and girl Dollers dressed as boys. They can become closely bonded with their Kigurumi identities, often feeling more at home in their costumed personas than their “real” selves. It can be difficult to see out of the masks’ eyeholes creating the need for the players to be led around by the hand, - causing them to seem even more fragile and vulnerable.

Simmons searched the web for Kigurumi players and mask makers before settling on the output from a cosplayer in Russia who makes very complicated masks that take months to complete. According to the artist “I custom ordered them to my specifications including hair, eye, and lip color and created a group of characters based on his masks. I try to keep the same players in each mask and over time the characters have become more comfortable in their personas developing personalities, gestures, and unique tics that I have tried to capture.”

As a part of the new series, Simmons also steals the anime convention of painting real eyes on closed eyelids. Two fashion models (a blonde and a red head) were made up to resemble “Doll Girls” - young women who surgically enhance themselves to look like Barbie. Like the Mona Lisa their painted on gaze appears to follow you wherever you move. All of the characters have been photographed in a tiny abandoned house in Connecticut. The family that lived there painted the walls exotic colors and made little drawings on the wall, creating a space that feels like an overgrown version of the dollhouses Simmons has used in the past.

The artist explores the notion of beauty, identity and persona surrounding the assembled Dollers and attempts to raise parallels between physical masking and the appeal of contemporary forms of self-imaging and presentation via social media. Individuals today ‘present’ their BEST selves to their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers. The fuzzy space between who “we” are to ourselves and the “we” that is invented, constructed, and expressed with the “simple to use” tools of the 21st century have become hi-tech dress- up. At the completion of every shoot Simmons asked her models to shoot a “selfie” so she could create an archive of her characters from that distinct perspective. Simmons says, “While working with my characters I started to think about the implications of using a mask to alter one’s persona and my growing affection and preference for the masked performer. I felt disappointed at the end of a shoot when my performers unmasked.”

Her new series allows Simmons to work with human players and to continue to explore the blurry place between human and doll, animate and inanimate. Or as one Kigger referred to it, “my existence somewhere between the 2-D and 3-D worlds.” Through her lens, the artist continues to mine this in-between space -- successfully bringing another new set of characters to life and forcing self-examination.

Kigurumi, Dollers, and How We See will be on view at Salon 94 Bowery from March 7 through April 27 with a reception for the artist from 6-8pm on March 7th. The gallery will also present images from Laurie Simmons’ Walking Objects series in their booth at the ADAA’s The Art Show March 5 -9th at the Park Avenue Armory. Simmons created The Walking Objects series between 1987-1991 and several of the images in this group will be exhibited for the first time.

A native of Long Island, New York, Simmons was given her first solo show at Artists Space in 1979 and has had scores of subsequent exhibitions around the globe in the intervening years. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, The Whitney, Guggenheim, Corcoran, and dozens of other public collections. The artist lives and works in New York City and Connecticut.