"Shrine Show" 1998

Shrine show:  Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center, Maui  1997

I created a shrine to the Barbie doll in which I installed six tall black Halogen lamps with a Barbie doll suspended over each lamp. The dolls were hung from a monofilament line giving the effect of dolls floating over the bright light of the lamps. The heat caused them to slowly spin as if they were dancing to the 1950’s dance music which was playing. The dolls were nude except for their high heel shoes and earrings.

At the base of the lamps were collections of fezes (shrine Hats) evoking the concept of shriners worshipping the figures.  As a young man in Minneapolis, I had seen Shriners at their conventions with hookers. The exhibit included a questionnaire for people to fill out asking them to list “five ways Barbie has influenced/ affected you”. 

And this is what they said:

“ Why didn’t they call her Debbie?

   Where was Ken’s penis?

   Why weren’t her feet flat?

   No belly button?

  Why didn’t her legs bend?

   She ruined my life!”

 -Stella, Maui   Age 41

“I feel glad for them. Why? Becauause thay get play’d with by people.”

  -Hannah , Maui   Age 6 1/2

“It helped me to feel very true lesbian feelings without shame.”
-Joan, Maui   Age 39

“My Barbie is very nice and has a lot of mescera. When my brother sees toy story he cuts her heds off”

 -Laure n Bangerter, Kula   Age 8

“She set me in search of the ideal woman. She has a removable head, which I usually replace with a light bulb. I usually place her in some sort of cage to represent the “Ideal woman’s ” true place in society. She was my center piece in an assemblage called Idee fixe.”

 –Curt, Maui   Age 41

“Barbie confused me- no pubic hair-no nipples- so I painted it on for her, hence I was confused…….. Blonde hair was the only beauty. Made me think my waist was large. Yuk-despised her. Will never have them for my own kids. p.s I buried Barbie up to her neck in dirt (so just her head with sticking out) than I ran over her with my dirt bike-approx age 11. So I have a twisted mind!”

-C.Martin, Maui   Age 26

“I was affected only at the mother of two girls and two boys. I had to keep reinforcing reality to my children. One son did marry a women with a near- Barbie figure. My other son still seeks out his fantasy of that body. My daughters, who owned and played with the “Barbies”, have had to deal with accepting their own natural , beautiful, rounded , lovely bodies ”

- Ann , Maui   Age 68

“Barbie was a feminist role model for me-independently wealthy, well-traveled, single (just kept Ken around for practical reasons), fit and strong , and smiled a lot ”

–Sanda   Age 59

“I like to take them into the bath. I have tons of clothes for my barbies. There fun to play with. I have five barbies. But I didn’t name them all”

- Judy   Age 6

“My children played endlessly with Barbie dolls- I think it was a good, expensive in which they were able to act out real life drama. Where’s Ken? ”

–Mother of two girls, Maui   Age 41

“I had an eating disorder”

-Tammy , Maui   Age 31

“50’s- No Barbie’s for me, they had breasts!

60’s- No Barbie’s for my children, the Barbie’s were plastic!

70’s- No Barbie’s for play, they were too common!

80’s- No Barbie’s as my children grew, too many materialistic off shoots!

90’s- No Barbie’s now, because “the collection” is too-expensive!”

-Jeanne, Maui   Age 57

“Barbie was just too big to fit on the Breyer model horses-but we used her anyway- to make her stay on, we’d break her legs at the hip socket so she could ride a horse. Skipper was better shorter, smaller - still broken. The best dolls had joints-like G.I Joe. The horses were out priority- me and my girlfriends.”

-Susan, Maui   Age 34

“ I played with Barbie’s as a young boy! I’m now a world class drag queen!! Koo Koo. Watch out!!!”

-Guava Chiffon, Maui

“She was the forbidden toy(fruit). Only the girls got to play with her in my nursery school. All the little boys played with the trucks and wood blocks. I wanted to play with the girls and the dolls but I was a little boy.”

-Urich, Maui   Age 52

“Barbie has made me think that women aren’t perfect if they don’t look like Barbie! Barbie can make or break a positive image about yourself and anyone else”

-Jane , Maui   Age 48

“Made/Makes me feel fat and ugly

  Makes me and other US women worry more about our looks (lookism)

  Makes/Made me feel you have to have long blonde hair to win (succeed)

  Makes me worry a lot about the future of American girls”

-Leslie, NY & Maui   Age 54