The Macabre Dolls & Doll Sculptures of Eleanor Boyce

Creating my own dolls is a returning to a childhood passion. At the back of a house, where my sister and I once stayed, was a wood. Adjacent the wood was a small doll factory and the factory dump. Despite signs displaying 'Danger' warnings we spent a great deal of time rumaging amongst the discarded refuse for heads, arms, legs etc. to fashion our own dolls. Of course, they were rather strange figures, not entirely having matching pieces, missing eyes and all. These dolls we kept in the 'palaces' we made in the woods and in such dark and damp conditions they soon grew their own clothes of moss and lichen. These dolls were our family, loved and cherished.

A few years later I was given a shop bought doll, a very pretty thing with ringlets, ribbons and bows. It was hardly the same and I loved it far less than my woodland self-made creatures. In fact I did not love it at all.

NURSERY CRYMES dolls and doll sculptures are more sophisticated than those of my early years. I have more materials to hand and years of artistic experience behind me now. Yet, in essence, they carry something of the same feeling.

Themes running through the creation of many of these dolls and videos to date are child abuse and shamanism, pain and nuture. This is something that makes these dolls very special and differentiates them from dolls created simply for ornamentation. Other dolly projects are planned for this year, which I am rather excited about.

 
NURSERY CRYMES studio is based in the north of England, in a coastal region where the wild moors meet the sea. It is an area most condusive to dark creativity, with its notorious haunted places, forests, abbey and castle ruins. Many an artist has been inspired by its shadows!

Yet, even before I lived here, my art has often naturally been infused with something of the strange and the sinister. My influences are varied, many, and are not solely from within the visual arts, and I also consciously draw upon my own experiential memories. NURSERY CRYMES is just one facet of my creativity (please visit my main website - nakthag.com to view my other works).

Auspiciously, I began to create these dolls late in October 2011, the festival of All Hallows, Halloween or Shamain. They have become a passion. Each one is lovingly created, each one has a magickal numinousity and each one is very special!