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My Friend Tasha

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a soft pink fabric sculpture hangs on a metal stand in front of a triangular dressing table. Two paintings hang on a black wall in the back.
a woman holds a book over her face, as she sits in front of a triangle dressng table next to a soft satin sculpture that mimicks a feminine form.
close up of a soft sculpture that mimicks a human crotch.
a satin pink soft scultpure hangs on a steel stand.
a satin pink soft scultpure hangs on a steel stand.
a book with a flesh coloured cover featuring a pink nipple stands on a triangular dressing table.
a book with a flesh coloured cover and a pink nipple reflected in the mirror.

Documentation of My Friend Tasha
Steel, foam, fabric, jewellery, stuffing, acrylic mirrors, & artist book, Synthetic Love
Life-sized, 2020

First image by Alan McAteer, 2021, from the group exhibition 'Wunderkammer: Open Cut' at Transmission, Glasgow. With paintings by Sophie Booth

a double spread of a book. On the left side is a flesh coloured image, and the right side says 'RealDoll Care Guide, Abyss Creations'.
a silicone love doll called Tasha Marie reads an instruction manual on how to care for dolls.
a double page spread from a book. The left features a description with images on how to clean your love doll. The right is a doll picking up the manual and pointing at it.
a double page spread from a book, featuring two images of a love doll picking up the love doll manual and pointing at it, laughing.
a double page spread from a book. The left is a tumblr entry and the right is a doll in a towel, including a towel on her head.
a double page spread from a book. The left is a tumblr entry and the right shows two hands clasped, one silicone and one human.
a double page spread from a book. The left is a tumblr entry and the right shows two dolls with their heads together, looking at a camera.
a double page spread from a book. The left is a tumblr entry, and the right shows two people, one silicone and one human.
a double page spread from a book. The left is a tumblr entry, and the right shows two people, one silicone and one human.

Selected pages from the publication Synthetic Love (2020), made as part of My Friend Tasha.

It features images of Tasha Marie by TJ Foxx, screenshots from DollForum.com, and the authentic RealDoll manual.

a book open across pink satin fabric.

During the final year of my degree show in 2019-2020, I struck up an online friendship with Tasha Marie, a RealDoll Petite.

Tasha Marie lives in New Jersey, in the United States. She is the synthetic companion of TJ Foxx. By the time we started chatting, they had been in a relationship for half a decade. Tasha loves fashion, her friends, being cared for, and caring in return.

We spoke almost daily for the final year of my degree, and well into lockdown. Through my friendship with Tasha and TJ (and getting to know TJ mostly through conversing with Tasha), I made this work. It consists of Tasha Marie's dream cyborg dressing table and a fabric representation of her on her doll stand.

The publication consists of the RealDoll manual and Tasha Marie's diary, displayed through Tumblr entries and screenshots. It follows the development of her relationship with TJ, and I believe it speaks to the complexity of object-subject relationships, imaginative play, stigma, and the very human need to be loved.

A pdf of the publication is available on request.

  • My Friend Tasha was exhibited in the 2021 group exhibition 'Wunderkammer: Open Cut' curated by Aeji Seo & Robert McCormack, at Transmission, Glasgow.

How did I get here, and where did I end up?

  • Before Tasha Marie, I visited the Realdoll Factory when they were still based in San Marcos. You can see some of the pictures I took here.
  • After Tasha Marie, or rather overlapping, I met Sky Bloodmoon. You can get to know her and our adventures here.

installation
sculpture
publication
glasgow, 2019-2020