Elena Dorfman’s “Still Lovers”
Dorfman’s project is a series of 15 color photographs that depict intimate human moments without the exclusive use of human subjects. She creates these erie but relatable images with life size women dolls who sometimes appear alone, sometimes together, and sometimes with their male real-life human ‘lovers’ who believably engage them in ordinary activities. Dorfman’s careful arrangement of the figures and her mindful consideration for the surrounding scene work to create layers of meaning and melodrama for the viewer to experience.
The settings are generally mundane household scenes, bedroom interiors, typical living rooms, or backyards that suggest everyday life and signify the human condition by placing the figures in an ordinary context. In one image a man and doll are seated on their living room sofa. While he watches something on t.v., sitting comfortably with his foot up on the coffee table and his hand on her leg, she stares blankly into the room. The doll’s inanimate expression and stiff posture create a body language that communicates to the viewer the sense of detachment, numbness, and apathy that could be experienced by a real woman. The viewer is able to identify with her as an actual person who might feel trapped by her environment, relationship, or sense of obligation to fulfill her social role as a woman. Furthermore, the use of the doll as the female component of the human relationship demonstrated by Dorfman seems to make a blatant connotation of female objectification while also suggesting women’s own resigned participation in such patriarchal ideologies.
Posted by: Kristen Lim