The Doll
人形
- Birth Year
- 1902
- Death Year
- 1975
- Date
- ca. 1935 (printed in later years)
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 25.7 x 26.0 cm
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 93-PHF-012
A doll with two "lower bodies" connected at the abdomen hangs from an open doorway so that it stands out against a blackened interior beyond. A strong light from the left creates a distinct shadow on the door. In the lower left of the picture, a bouquet of flowers hangs at the height of the door handle. Both the handle and the round tuft of flowers are likely intended as phallic symbols. Why does the doll have two lower bodies? According to Hans Bellmer, our bodies have one part that is the source of our sensual arousal, but when our desires are forbidden, that part becomes cut off from our consciousness. Our desire then attaches itself to another part of our body, where it assumes new meaning and cloaks itself in innocuity. Here the doll's upper body has taken on the forbidden eroticism and is replicating the lower body.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)