Some facts behind 'You Can Shave The Baby': The art of Zbigniew Libera

Our internet is a fun and fascinating tool, but its laziness can be confounding.
Pertinent background information is so often avoided, or eschewed in favor of propagating misinformation.

A small case in point: Images of the oddly hairy baby doll shown below have been circulating on the web for several years now, most often presented as a lone, wacky 'WTF' photo, and almost always with the implication that it was spotted for sale in a marketplace for cheap Asian-produced toys.






Almost never mentioned is that
'You Can Shave The Baby' was never a
consumer item, but rather an art object created in 1995 by Zbigniew Libera, consisting of a set of ten matching dolls in ten matching cardboard boxes.

As described at the Polish artist's website;
"...His works - - photographs, video films, installations, objects and drawings - - piercingly and subversively (in an intellectual way) play with the stereotypes of contemporary culture."






In this vein of presenting 'transformed toys', Libera preceded 'You Can Shave The Baby' with 'Ken's Aunt' in 1994, a similar set of heavier-set Barbie-like dolls wearing unflattering foundation undergarments - -


(click on image to enlarge)




- - he followed in 1996 with perhaps his most famous and controversial work,
'Correcting Device:
LEGO Concentration Camp'
- - Three editions of 7 different highly customized boxed
Lego System sets.










From Zbigniew Libera's Artist's Statement included in an exhibition at The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota:

"My ability to work with objects is taken from everyday urban contemporary life. In my study of the development of correctional devices and educational toys, I see such devices reveal more about a society and its mechanisms for creating and enforcing its norms than any study of society could.

"'Lego', a construction made partially from various Lego kits, takes us into a village with a mental hospital, Stalin's prison, World War II and Bosnian concentration camps. Thus, I feel I mix historical with contemporary references to represent our world, our little inferno, as built and sanctified by norms.





"'Eroica', is a four-boxed set of toy soldier-sized women figures. They are based on classical models.

"They are a reminder that in the 1990s no toy soldier set is complete without the inclusion of women, who have become the special targets of victimization in genocidal settings such as Bosnia, where rape camps have been well documented. Such is the fashion of 'heroic' actions of armies in genocidal and even less violent encounters where women are victims.

"During an academic conference in Brussels in December, 1997, an agitated audience, who felt that the Lego Concentration Camp was a real toy which was available for sale, demanded that I comment about why I constructed it.

"My response then, as it is now, was:
'I am from Poland. I've been poisoned.'"


- More Zbigniew Libera links are at Wikipedia.

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 04/11/08

1. Bob Dylan's Pulitzer prize.

In other important news this week, I saw the need for some debunking...

2. This week my 'forward' cousin included me on a list of folks to receive an e-mail that's made the rounds online in recent years - - "What does a 320 pound woman look like?".

Maybe you've seen this, or received the same forwarded message - - ?

In looking at the photos of the 7'4" woman, purportedly living in Holland and dubbed "...The tallest and best proportioned woman in the world..." I began to have doubts.

I kept finding the same photos as I googled about, with the same vague info and no name given for the statuesque woman.

And so, inevitably, the search led to Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

Snopes reports that these are undoctored photos that have (through the miracles of the internet) become paired with an inaccurate description.

Apologies for squelching any fantasies, but Snopes goes on to identify the 6'5½"-tall, 210-pound lady in question as Heather Greene of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Not the world's tallest woman, but still quite impressive in tall-heeled shoes standing next to people of slightly less-than-average height.

Snopes also reports that Heather's website is currently inactive.

3. The Bulbdial Clock

At his blog 'Ironic Sans', designer / photographer David Friedman floats the concept for this beautiful 'electric sundial', which he says would be "...best suited for dim spaces such as restaurants and nightclubs"...

"The Bulbdial Clock has no hands — just one pole in the center of the clock, and three light sources of varying heights which revolve around the pole casting shadows.

"In the model illustrated above, the light sources are each attached to a ring which rotates around the pole. The innermost ring rotates once per minute, casting a 'second hand' shadow. The middle ring rotates once per hour, and casts the 'minute hand' shadow. And the outer ring rotates once every 12 hours, casting the 'little hand' shadow.

"The Bulbdial Clock can be used flat like a traditional sundial, or mounted vertically on a wall. A variation on the design intended for large-scale installation (such as in a museum) involves a pole sticking up in the middle of a room, while the light sources are mounted on the ceiling, shining down on the pole as they rotate around it."

I like it. I really like David's
Pre-pixelated clothes for Reality TV shows, also... ▶

(Via Dark Roasted Blend... um, I think. Or was it Neatorama?)

4. Stanley Stories!

A website devoted to classic comics creator John Stanley.

This work-in-progress and labor-of-love includes a spotter's guide to
'Stanley-isms', and several different Stanley-rendered stories available for your reading pleasure. Yow!

(Via STWALLSKULL)

5. Oh, the Places You'll Go - - with Wikipedia and an inquisitive friend.

Some discussions and e-mailing conducted this past week with My Friend Topic led (as is often the case) to some interesting web research and small voyages of discovery (or
connect-the-dots) for both of us.

Chatting about some raccoon-like critters seen in her community, Topic began some research, but was quickly side-tracked by stumbling upon the enchanting Asian Raccoon Dog, known in Japan as Tanuki.

Neither raccoon nor truly dog, it stands to reason that the Tanuki is a part of Japanese folklore.

Just a bit of further exploration led Topic to learning about 19th-century Japanese woodblock artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

His 1881 print of Tanuki 'with typically enlarged scrotum' engaged her love for
Ukiyo-e prints but also connected with her enjoyment of Studio Ghibli anime.

She explained to me about having seen the 1994 film 'Pom Poko' which had featured Tanuki and retained some of the 'testacular' feats from folklore.
(The DVD is now in my queue)

But wait, there's more.

Topic fired off another e-mail to me as her surfing along the Studio Ghibli route led her eventually to the character
Tony Tony Chopper, a member of
'The Straw Hat Pirates' from a manga and anime series 'One Piece'.

In reading the Wikipedia description of this 'reindeer doctor' character, his history, his special abilities and physical transformations available to him from eating 'human human fruit' and 'rumble balls', Topic and I concurred in our vague assessment; 'How perfectly Japanese'.

I also declared that it's people like Tony Tony Chopper that continue to make me feel all a-scared of any halfway serious attempts to satisfy my curiousity about the just-so-VAST arena of anime and manga.

Sometimes I'll reason that maybe I've got enough nerdly interests on my plate already, thanks all the same...

However, while learning about T.T. Chopper and his 'Monster Point' transformation ('the misunderstood monster'), we also learned about literary tropes and their definition...

"(literature) Something recurring across a genre or type of literature, such as the 'mad scientist' of horror or 'once upon a time' introduction to fairytales. Similar to a Cliché, but is not necessarily pejorative."

Hurray Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, I was up to some websearch shenanigans of my own, and once again My Friend Topic was in on it.

So there I was, innocently looking up 'Bandanna' on Wikipedia.

Summer approaches, it's looking like I'll be doing a lot of driving, and I'm getting tired of my hair always getting in my face.

One passage managed to give me pause;
"Bandannas in particular colors are also worn as a means of communication or identification, as with the prominent California criminal gangs, the Bloods, the Crips, the Norteños, and the Sureños or in sexual subcultures in the United States."

Great. So what colors are there for a bandanna that send NO message, no invitation - - ??

I fired off an e-mail to Topic upon discovering via Wikipedia's fascinating page on 'Handkerchief code' that essentially there is no such color. Naive me, I must not get out enough...

Still - - education is a good thing, and My Friend Topic and I were excited to learn of the term 'tea room' in reference to 'cottaging' (another new word for us, meaning to cruise public lavatories for gay sex).

Even better was the information about Polari and other cant or slang / subculture languages.

Wow! Oh, the Places You'll Go!

BUT.
Never to be outdone, My Friend Topic then countered by heading back to the list of colors in the 'handkerchief code' roster.
By following the seemingly innocent link to the color beige, she discovered Zinnwaldite, a color classification previously unknown to either of us.

In addition to a listing for the mineral zinnwaldite (that shows no resemblance to the color) was a somewhat perplexing reference;

"It is common for those in the baby boom generation to think of beige as being the color zinnwaldite because in the 1960s, AT&T; marketed a colored telephone for offices and homes in a color they called 'beige' which was actually the color zinnwaldite."




This factoid may or (through the miracles of the internet) may not be true, but the proof of neither of Wikipedia's examples of beige or zinnwaldite quite matching the color of that telephone doesn't help matters.

Welcome to the internet. Oh, the Places You'll Go...
(Where to next, Topic?)

6. Residing at the always enthralling Ethan Persoff, http://www.ep.tc comes:

'A gallery of 21
Paper-based Condom Envelopes from the 1930s and 1940s'

(Via
The Bunny House)





- Finally, one blog update of note this week:

A visitor sent in an LP cover photo that's been added to my previous post on the artwork of Richard Erdoes. ▶

Many thanks!

- - D'oh!! And this JUST in
(via My Friend Topic, no less):

A reminder that Free Comic Book Day is coming 'round again, on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 to a comic-book shop somewhere (hopefully) near you.

Always a fun event, and a GREAT way to give someone an introduction to the world of comic books ('first one's free kid, heh-heh-heh') - - especially youngsters still learning to read, or learning about the power of reading in general!

There's often some cool special-to-the-event books made available too.
Follow this link to see some of what you might find...

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 01/25/08

Speaking of things that came up this past week:

1. ⅔ of a 'Cloverfield' review...



⅔, as in how much of 'Cloverfield' I saw last Saturday night, before I was forced to stagger out of the theater with motion sickness.

I guess the 'puke factor' for this movie has become a little bit of a phenomenon, similar to reports from 'Blair Witch' crowds a few years back.

- - Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying myself just fine, although I could have done with more monster and mayhem (and perhaps explanations) and a lot less of the main characters. Such is often the case with these movies, though.

It was the motion of the handheld camerawork that drove me out.

About half-way through the flick I began feeling classic symptoms - - dizziness, nausea, clammy cold sweats.
I'd had a great dinner out before the movie (a dinner I didn't particularly care to see again), and after a further fifteen minutes or so I figured I'd better remove myself from the theater and its patrons. I wanted to try and make sure it wasn't food poisoning or some such.

Putting aside the pretty little party people and their petty problems from the beginning of the movie, I was REALLY enjoying the impressive special effects with the 'hand-held video', and the aspects of what was basically a higher-concept Godzilla movie from the ground-level perspective of a terrorized civilian. I also liked that (other than the monster) my favorite character was the cameraman you rarely see.

The most amusing part of the evening was as I came reeling out of the theater - - all pale, pit-stains, a little wobbly and trying to keep my breathing steady. There was a small group of teenagers standing together in the lobby eating popcorn. One saw me, pointed and laughed, and said "Here comes another one!"

I was already feeling better. I didn't lose dinner, but I headed to the men's room to throw some water on my face, only to discover a disaster area there. I saw the feet of three different guys sticking out from under stall doors as they were on their knees hurling, and the unfortunate evidence in several spots on the tile floor of those who hadn't made it that far.

Exiting through the multiplex lobby, I saw several unhappy ushers scurrying about with sweepers and containers and such, heading into the various rest rooms and back into the theater with flashlights. What an awful job.

Just wanted to share my own experience. Thanks for your time!
Maybe I'll be more ready for 'Cloverfield' on DVD and a small screen.

2. Suzanne Pleshette left us last week.

It was great to have her around as long as we did.













Great performer. Great timing. Great voice, and yes, VERY easy on the eyes.

















Just a few photos ganked from around the web. (click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)













3. Under the twin headings of 'Everything You Know Is Wrong' and 'Giving The Artists Their Due' are the two following curious coincidences...

a) One of the ever-recurring long-traveling e-mail forwards to pop-up in my inbox this week bore the legend: "Entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper."

Maybe you've seen something like the same e-mail?

Very cool! Inspirational!

It brings to mind all the wonderful results that can come from working around limitations and restrictions, and it's great to get a fresh view of the world and its possibilities through the eyes of an artist.

So looking at the e-mail, as often happens I thought 'Ooh, I'd like to post that to my blog - - where can I find more info about this stuff?'

A bit of googling revealed that this was never a contest at the 'Hirshorn' gallery, or at
the Smithsonian's *Hirshhorn* Museum and Sculpture Garden either, for that matter.

Likewise, as one would suspect, the e-mail images were all the work of one artist.

- Visit the 'A4 Papercut' gallery at Peter Callesen's website.

Take a good look around the site.
Danish artist Peter Callesen has worked in many mediums beyond paper, you'll see a variety of amazing and striking creations.

(Thanks to MC Alumnateer)

b) Another day, another compelling if unknowingly fraudulent forwarded e-mail.

This time it was Los Angeles artist
Erika Rothenberg's 1990 aluminum signboard piece 'America's Joyous Future' ➤
making the cyberspace rounds presented as something actually sighted in front of a church.

A little delving found several slightly varying images of it floating out there with different stories behind it, as well as a few more 'factual' accounts, like this article that mentions it on display at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Golly, but isn't the internet interesting?

Additional to the mountains of normal spam, I've grown accustomed to the 'spanner in the works' e-mails that forward around the globe warning us about some new conspiracy or governmental hijinx, asking us to sign a bogus petition. That and the cottage industry that Nigeria and other locales seem to have going in financial scams...

But the hows and whys of the details behind these artist's work morphing over time - - ?
What an odd puzzle.

I guess the 'joyous future' one is understandable, but as to the papercut stuff - - ? To what end?

Regardless, it doesn't diminish the cool-tasticness of the work!

4. Speaking of cool-tastic:

The other night I found the link to
Feed the Head and sent it to a friend's
eighth-grader who has a new e-mail account to break in.

I figured that the decepitively simple but completely addictive web toy would be a great way for him to waste his energy when he should probably be finding more constructive uses for his time.

If you've not seen it, check it out.

Click your cursor around and start exploring the head. One thing leads to another and then another, and the whimsy continues with seemingly no end.

You've been warned.

This time there, I explored the links to the equally compelling 'Acrobots' and 'Vectorpark'.

Good clean trippy fun.

There's also a link to the origin of all the sounds on those pages:

5. The Freesound Project.

What a great resource!
It's "...a collaborative database of
Creative Commons licensed sounds".

"The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps..." - - a million household uses!

Part source for scientific research, part sound effects library, and part field recording archive of ambient sound from around the world.

A most pleasant discovery to tumble onto, I aim to indulge in further investigation soon!