Carol Baker
|
|
This piece was developed from Carol’s fascination with her own family history, looking at how certain events caused distress and sometimes mental illness in her loved ones. It was not until adulthood that her mother confided to her that she had been abused by her father as a child. She had never told anyone, and Carol’s shock had been profound, especially as her mother said that girls were often ‘broken in’ by their fathers at that time. It was not spoken of again and Carol tucked the experience away until working on her degree dissertation, which was based on psychological wounds. Her mother had a china doll as a child which was her confidante. She was also a prolific doll maker in later years, leaving them to Carol when she died. They were important to her mother and this was why she chose to make a doll to represent the abuse. Using two of the dolls her mother left, she made a topsy-turvy doll with a head at either end. One to represent the ugliness of the abuse that was endured and the other end to represent the face of normality. The ugly end was hidden under the skirts of normality, her mother was sworn to secrecy with the threat of the break-up of the family if she told. Her father had crossed a boundary that never should have been crossed, betraying his daughter and damaging her for life.
Further Links:
