Title: Thrift Store Barbie
Date: 2014
Medium: video, digital stills, paper
Thrift Store Barbie explores mass market media and gendered spaces within toy stores to understand how dolls are expected to be played with, by whom, and even how they are purchased, creating a disciplining matrix of race, gender, class, and power that is difficult to untangle. Yet many children purchase their dolls second-hand from local thrift stores, which have a very different approach to selling than a traditional toy store. By including thrift store purchases to the mix, we come to understand the larger ecologies of power, class and late capitalism.
Exhibited at:
Trash, Toxicity, Transmission
Lassonde House
University of Utah
105 South Fort Douglas Blvd
Salt Lake City, UT 84113
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 29, 6PM – 8PM