The lady in Pink

Pictures by Viola Balodis 

I made this costume of the creepy dolls which is narrating the story of the Lady in pink, that Ioanna wrote and sing, she created this character of this old lady who wants to stay young by drinking a magic potion. 

Click here to here The lady in pink song! 

Ioanna's Facebook page to listen her other songs

We got our inspiration from porcelain dolls but Ioanna didn't want to be the perfect nice neat one but creepy and a bit dirty, more like broken dolls. 

So I used a lot of torn lace on a shabby dress with faded pink colours.  I stitched little porcelain dolls (which actually christmas decorations!). We added  the necklace with barbie hands with dolls. So it's like a "mise en abîme", a dolls wearing dolls part, like little reflection of herself. 

Ioanna wanted a big  collar in order to  add stiffness to the character, so I made this structure with corset fabric halfway between victorian collar, and control head collar for dog which add something really over the top to the creepy doll. 

We also played on the asymmetrically of the dress by using the same lace tutu I used for my dead bride dress.

Lyrics: 

In a drawer i found a book
i thought to myself 'ill take a look'
yellow pages faded ink
before id time even to think
behind my back the lady in pink

the lady in pink was my old neighbour

in her food she adds no flavour

can't use salt because she's sick

instead she has pastilles to lick

Disfigured face Disfigured bones

her prime was rather full of thrones

thrones ancient thrones made out of gold

with leather handles ivory mold

they kept her warm, kept out the cold

but didn't manage to withhold..

…the dark dark darkness

the dark dark darkness of her soul

In her drawer i found the book

i had the glimpse i had the look

hieroglyphics - I'm not egyptian

behind the symbols a prescription

Long list of drugs with no description

I lost my nerve i lost my diction

a déjà vu, a prémonition 

a burning mask refused submission

she'd soon soon soon be dead x4

she'll cut her thread

Was it my fault was it my ignition..

unspoken hatred due to omission

She offered tea but t' was too late 

Her clock was ticking, almost eight

Tick Tock..

Pictures by Viola Balodis

We were influenced by Tim Walker photo shoots for his fantasy universes and its mechanical poetry 

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011.

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011.

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011. 

LIKE A DOLL: LINDSEY WIXSON BY TIM WALKER FOR VOGUE ITALIA JANUARY 2012”

LIKE A DOLL: LINDSEY WIXSON BY TIM WALKER FOR VOGUE ITALIA JANUARY 2012”

shooting of the video lady in pink video clip in the green screen 

In front AND behind the camera

Green & pink: the good match? 

making off

Another influence, Morton Bartlett, an American photographer  who devoted much of his spare time to creating and photographing a series of intricately carved lifelike plaster dolls. 

He never formally exhibited his work, though a small circle of friends and acquaintances was aware of its existence. 

I discovered the work of Bodan Litnianski and its Gardens of Shells in Agnès Varda documentary "The Gleaners and I" (2000) and i was really fascinated by this outside the norm character.

He would haunt the region and collect thrown away materials, like puppets, toys, all kinds of scrap... He arranged these objets trouvés into very colourful columns he erected in his front garden (all done very solidly, Litnianski knowing about masonry....).

A century of fixing toys: Haunting look inside the doll hospital that comes with its own cemetery for figures beyond repair

Centenary Spare doll's parts sit waiting to be used for repair at Sydney's Original Doll Hospital which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year

With hundreds of plastic legs, arms, and heads stacked high in boxes, it looks like a haunting resting place for hundreds of unwanted dolls discarded by girls who no longer want to play with them.

But although Sydney's Famous Original Doll Hospital does have a cemetery for doll parts that are beyond repair, many of the toy parts littering the workshop are waiting to be given a new lease of life.

Spare parts: Hundreds of spare dolls' arms and legs are kept in boxes at the hospital's workshop in Bexley, Sydney

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281335/A-century-fixing-toys-Haunting-look-inside-doll-hospital-comes-cemetery-figures-repair.html#ixzz2MiD9ePij