The Deceit of Dolls.

The Deceit of Dolls (2016). Pigment Ink on Archival Paper.

In the collection of Latrobe Regional Gallery (LRG), Morwell, Vic, Australia.

I was thrilled to learn that my image The Deceit of Dolls (2016) would be exhibited at Latrobe Regional Gallery (LRG) in Morwell, as part of the exhibition STRAIGHTCUT: Photography from the Latrobe Regional Gallery Collection this July. It was rewarding to see the work displayed on the gallery wall again and to observe people stopping to engage with it. At the exhibition opening, I spoke with several visitors about the piece and answered their questions. I was delighted by their responses — many expressed genuine shock and surprise upon discovering the true nature of the work.

I’ve often said that an artwork should speak for itself — that beyond the title, little explanation should be necessary. However, where this particular piece has succeeded, for me, as an experiment in perception.

Let me explain: the deceit in The Deceit of Dolls doesn’t lie within the image itself, but in the way the image deceives the viewer.

Embedded within the conceptual DNA of my photograph is René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (1929). His famous painting of a smoking pipe, captioned “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”), reminds us that the image is not the object — it is merely a representation. Magritte challenged our assumptions about images and language, prompting us to think more critically about what we see and how we interpret it.

René Magritte The Treachery of Images (1929). https://publicdelivery.org/magritte-not-a-pipe/

In my work, the treachery — or deceit — lies in the two figures depicted. A man (who bears a striking resemblance to me) holds a doll in one hand, while the other is splayed across his chest in a gesture of protest, as though he’s been accused of something unspeakable. Most viewers I’ve spoken to assume that the doll referred to in the title is the small figure being held, when, in fact, it’s the larger figure.

The “man” in the photograph is a 30cm tall doll, crafted in my likeness and dressed in clothing similar to what I typically wear. To me, it’s clearly a doll — but to others, less obvious. I’ve been asked whether I ‘Photoshopped’ myself into the image. The answer is no — it’s a straight photograph, a glorified still life, with little to no digital manipulation.

I believe some of the confusion stems from the scale of the photograph with the main figure appears much larger than it is, creating the illusion of human proportions. The smaller ‘doll’ just 3cm tall in reality, was a figure surreptitiously acquired one day from my daughter’s Barbie music box.

The Deceit of Dolls a playfully yet thought-provoking work I feel inviting the viewer to question their assumptions and to look beyond first impressions. Manipulating scale and likeness, the image challenges perceptions of reality, echoing Magritte’s exploration of representation and truth. It is a reminder that, in art as in life, what we think we see is not always what is actually there.