Walking Hourglass (Color), from the series "Walking and Lying Objects" (1987–91)

For decades Laurie Simmons has staged photographs and films with human surrogates: paper dolls, finger puppets, ventriloquists’ dummies, and most recently masked dancers, all “living objects” peopling a dollhouse world riven by longing, regret, and crises of identity. Her lushly colored photographs echo advertising in their evident staging and appeal, but their homemade nature undoes the slickness of commercial imagery, while their exaggerated objectification of women prompts consciousness of the very real gender inequalities that drive the image spectacle governing our daily lives. For the series Walking and Lying Objects (1987–91), Simmons hybridized a female doll figure with a ladies’ handbag, a toilet, a camera, a gun, various sweets, and an hourglass, as seen here.