Kristyna Milde – Staging Barbie

If you thought Hitchcock Barbie was a stunner, then you might be truly amazed by Kristyna Milde´s photo series called cUMENI. The Czech artist used historical paintings as a stage, with woman represented by the Barbie doll, to allude to stereotypical forms of representing woman in the past and in the present.
Kristyna Milde´s main concern is the critical examination on how modes of representation – mostly sanctioned by the male gaze – distort the perception of woman and beauty when women become artificial objects of desire and visual pleasure, as it was in the past when painters created their paintings and as it´s today when photographers shoot their series.

While Milde´s criticizing negative effects on woman´s self-images and asks her how the youngest generations are influenced by playing with an artificial doll, what ideals they are identifying with and what consequences this implies for their future development, I have to state, that I don´t share this one-dimensional view on the themes Barbie vs. real woman.

But what I definitely find interesting is, how Kristyna Milde visually translates old, famous paintings in photography’s staging today´s objects and the question about the differences of picturing woman today and then. I think, she´s right when saying that not much has changed and woman have been and will be sometimes real, sometimes artificially objects of desire when photographed or painted.

What would be really interesting for me is not the question about how we, real woman, deal with these things – I really would like more to know about how the picturing of woman has changed through the centuries. But besides that – Kristyna Milde´s project cUMENI is a great one. Have a look on her site.

Photos via Kristyna Milde.