Reborn baby dolls - seriously creepy.

[Amanda1]

I saw the ad for the programme. Looks like interesting viewing.

[Mathom]

Now I'm getting visions of them lying on boot sale tables or in antique shops. Or even half-buried in landfill sites. *shudders*.

 

I know! I had that thought! Imagine walking past a charity shop window and seeing a baby lying there! Now I have real problems chucking out or giving away anything that's animal-like, so if I had one of these I don't know if I could say take it to the charity shop once I got fed up with it - and that's bound to happen if a child has one for a doll.

 

Hmmm, maybe they're not that far off those little sculpts of dogs that people collect? Though obviously at the real size! And I can't really criticise as I've a huge collection of action figures and other toys.

 

And there must be a real artistry involved in making them. Doll making and redesigning is a big hobby; people spend fortunes on making over old fashion dolls such as Barbies, even recasting heads, and people likewise spend fortunes on buying them.

[tinkabel]

I agree with you, as I said prev a friend ordered one and she called me over to have a look and it really did freak me out. They are sooo lifelike. I ws looking on ebay earlier at prices of the etc just out of intrest. There was one that was so damn real and it had a little mothercare outfit on with a avent dummy.

Does anyone know what exactley happens in the reborning process?

 

its a process that takes quite a while, the face tends to be stripped dramatically, hair is sewn in by hand, faces are also painted by hand, they remelt plastic to form creases etc. it is a very interesting hobby and i must admit to looking into doing it at one point with my mum but we never found the time. I am in the minority here and i like these dolls but then again i do collect dolls, i don't treat them like real babies though i have a little man to look after properly without adding dolls to the equation

 

i remember when i worked in Sheffield a woman brought in her 'baby' and it was one of these dolls, i remember feeling quite freaked out about it, she didn't have it in a buggy, she was holding it and it looked so real which is why i mentioned how cute the 'baby' was

[julado]

The only models I've seen so realistic are by sculptor Ron Mueck. Exact in every detail, there is, however one aspect of his works that make them obviously not real!

 

That is truly sinister.....I can't get my head round that at all. Is it art????

 

I think I would rather go and see Gunther van Haagen's plastinated sculptures....at least you know what you are getting.....or perhaps I would not prefer to go and see them at all.

 

Whatever happened to pretty pictures in art galleries?

[okka north]

I'm sorry but they are awful as they really look like a dead baby.

[Twinpeaks]

i might get one for a broody friend

[purdyamos]

That is truly sinister.....I can't get my head round that at all. Is it art????

 

I think I would rather go and see Gunther van Haagen's plastinated sculptures....at least you know what you are getting.....or perhaps I would not prefer to go and see them at all.

 

Whatever happened to pretty pictures in art galleries?

 

What Ron Mueck does is create absolutely natural and real-looking people of whatever kind, but just changes the scale to the subject's *emotional* size, if that makes sense. You have to see them in real life to get the physical sense of how that works.

 

For instance, he did a model of a pubescent girl looking awkward and a bit scared, who was about eight or nine foot tall. I remember very vividly that feeling of being too big for yourself, of growing faster than you can cope with. It came to the Millenium Gallery a few years ago, and everyone who saw it 'got it' immediately. Alice in Wonderland touched on the very same theme.

 

The giant baby represents the totally dominating impact the supposedly tiny creature imposes on whichever family one lands in! A baby may only be a few pounds of helplessness but they force you to sweep away almost everything that came before and focus on them almost to the exclusion of all else - it's an enormous, looming responsibility, and that's what the giant baby impresses on people who see it.

 

I hope that all makes sense, because it's a simple trick that Mueck does but really powerful and effective.

[SpeedwayDan]

yep i found the trailer for this seriously weird.

 

The dolls just looked so scary to me, i wonder if all the people who own these are people who couldn't have children.

[julado]

What Ron Mueck does is create absolutely natural and real-looking people of whatever kind, but just changes the scale to the subject's *emotional* size, if that makes sense. You have to see them in real life to get the physical sense of how that works.

 

For instance, he did a model of a pubescent girl looking awkward and a bit scared, who was about eight or nine foot tall. I remember very vividly that feeling of being too big for yourself, of growing faster than you can cope with. It came to the Millenium Gallery a few years ago, and everyone who saw it 'got it' immediately. Alice in Wonderland touched on the very same theme.

 

The giant baby represents the totally dominating impact the supposedly tiny creature imposes on whichever family one lands in! A baby may only be a few pounds of helplessness but they force you to sweep away almost everything that came before and focus on them almost to the exclusion of all else - it's an enormous, looming responsibility, and that's what the giant baby impresses on people who see it.

 

I hope that all makes sense, because it's a simple trick that Mueck does but really powerful and effective.

 

That is a lovely explanation PA....Thank you

 

I suppose I just don't get all this alternative art stuff....the Tracey Emin and Damien Hurst stuff.....its perhaps all too deep for me....or too shallow?????

 

I could accept it is art but not my taste.....give me Vermeer any day

 

But sorry....have gotten away from the topic....now where were we?????

 

Ah yes.....those reborn dolls.

[dnairn8417]

I was first emailed pictures of these dolls when my little boy was a baby about 3 years ago, at the time I thought they were cute. i look at them now and find them quite creepy, I've no idea why.