Sketches and Further Development

Sketches

Once I decided on my subject for the project being baby dolls, I did some sketches of one of my own dolls, plus some doll parts I bought from a second-hand shop.

I decided to keep the sketches 2D in order to layer them on top of each other, the start of my idea of a 'baby army'. Rather a way for the viewer to see the babies as a group, not individually. This way each subject becomes void of all personality, much like a crowd at a shopping centre.

Humans relationship with groups

I wanted to explore why I thought groups were so appealing to me in this project so I looked to human nature. It is taught in us as kids at school and at home that groups are helpful in our lives. In schools we work as teams to complete a project and bounce ideas. In leisure we partake in team sports and hobbies. And in our daily lives, we split chores up with family and eat as groups, spending time with friends celebrating birthdays and achievements. Being in a group just feels right, we can take pressure off ourselves to do everything all the time, instead helping each other to achieve our goals. 

Being in a group satisfies our desire to belong, to feel needed. We put so much value in our sense of self and social identity that we want people to see who we are and accept us. Even with how much we rely on groups, it is sometimes subjective as to what a group is, so what exactly makes a group a group?

Throughout our daily lives we see groups everywhere, lines in supermarkets, friends at a coffee shop, even patients at a hospital. However, depending on where you stand in a situation, your view can change. For example, waiting in line at the bus stop, in your perspective, you are an individual waiting on your own for a service, but a person driving past in a car will see the group of people waiting. To the onlooker, not one person stands out, they just see a group of people standing together. In this situation, the individuals loose their identities and become anonymous, blending into the crowd. 

This is what I want to highlight in my work, the sense of anonymity. The way each subject has no sense of self or belonging by itself, but when together form its own unique identity. The onlooker can view the collection as a whole, but it is only when they look closer can they see the small differences, they can see what makes each one unique, its identity, just like in humans.