Excerpted from Barbie: In the Spotlight, written
by Marie Morreale, published by Golden Books, Inc.
N o credit given for costume design, set design, animation of lifeless
plastic figures, etc.
Since last week's unit focused on gatherings of men in art, this week we will consider gatherings of women.
In this particular work we find limitless critiques of the role of women in society. This work, excerpted from a short, illustrated/animated storybook for children, at first strikes the viewer as being quite transparent, facile even, but I challenge you to look a bit harder.
While this piece is not what one typically would consider a "work of art" in the traditional sense, it has all the makings of one. For instance, the suggestion of action and movement through the use of a carefully constructed design or structure, the employment of some creative media to convey an image or meaning (here the media is a melange of cinematic, animatronic, and theatrical), a commentary on society (whether negative, positive, ironic, or not), and most importantly, the suggestion of a dialogue with the audience (presumably young girls, aged 3-7).
To those who
would say of this piece, "That's not art," or those among you
who would say of Barbie, "That's not a woman," I challenge you
to look a bit further, to stretch your own acceptance of the term 'art'
as far as this piece stretches definitions that it seems to want to elucidate.
