Mariel Clayton is hardly the first artist who’s worked with Barbie dolls, those perennial symbols of impossible, Aryan beauty standards and traditional female roles. But the scenes she creates with them may well be some of the most subversive. Clayton came to Barbies through a fascination with Japanese miniatures. “Since I started working with dolls, I have grown more and more to appreciate what can be done with them, how the smallest gesture or placement seems to convey volumes,” the artist writes on her website. And, she adds, “I happen to think it’s a damn funny medium.”
Clayton’s photos of Barbies mutilated, covered in blood, and engaged in various deviant and bondage-inflected sex acts — without ever losing their all-American smiles or mussing their perfect, blonde hair — are both darkly funny and truly jarring. By casting Barbie as a bloodthirsty (but also unnervingly cheery, blasé) killer and Ken as her victim, the artist juxtaposes the horrors of war and violent crime with even the most innocuous children’s playthings. Click through for a small sampling of Clayton’s work, and visit her website to see a whole lot more.
Mariel Clayton, G Is for gastromancy [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, For you Valentine… a piece of my heart [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, I thought I told you – let her finish packing the food and THEN run her over… [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, Lie back and think of Libya [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, F is for facinorous [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, H is for hamartiology [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, B is for brochette [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, Play nice with Daddy – pt. 3 [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, They may not bounce as high… [Image via Designboom]
Mariel Clayton, D is for Dacnomania [Image via JPG Magazine]