Wishmaker

Wishmaker takes a close look at tin dollhouses from the 1960s. As objects, they offer a view of what Americans aspired towards, as well as revealing the domestic roles girls were groomed to fill. A dollhouse is a microcosm of hopes and dreams, the pocket female fantasy. As a child, I spent endless hours roaming the maze of rooms in my parent's New Jersey furniture store. The shapes and patterns that filled these spaces were imprinted in my consciousness. "Wing chairs" matched wallpapered ceilings and "window treatments" blocked the sunlight. Even our family home was a replica of this fantasy, a duplicate of the store. My photographic work is in response to these childhood impressions and memories. As far back as the 16th-century, dollhouses were given to girls to teach them to be future housewives. The tin dollhouse appeared in 1940s America with clues to the happy, domestic life printed directly onto the tin. The dollhouse fantasy mirrors the real world in my photographs and vice versa- small details become larger-than-life emblems. By photographing these miniature spaces, then printing the images large, I invite the viewer to wander alongside, between imagination and reality. I can't help but observe that the backgrounds in these dollhouses are rendered in the same aesthetic as my parents' furniture store and home. Peering through the windows like an oversized Alice in Wonderland, I roam through these tiny spaces with my camera, transported back in time.