Boy Series

Donovan & Siegel, 2011
Mixed media installation

Part Pinocchio, part Golem, part Astro Boy, this series of automatons explores our relationship with figures we create in our own image.

All the figures in the series were fabricated using the same batch processing techniques and, until posed, are difficult to tell apart. They transform once in their vignettes, however, where the unique and uncanny character of each Boy is expressed by his eyes, his gesture and props, and by his relationship to the viewer.

At times defiant, resigned, and mischievous, and at others hopeful, thoughtful, and curious, the Boys play on our tendency to anthropomorphize, and elicit in us an absurd instinct to nurture, scold and protect.