It is about five years ago Claire Bontje, a young Amsterdam-based photographer, contacted TDF. She was doing a project on love dolls and looking for someone willing to cooperate. I had photographers visiting my dolls before, so I invited Claire to do a photoshoot at my place.
When she arrived, there was no clear idea of the photo shoot. Still she had a strong opinion about the shoot, it should show human-doll interaction. I’m always withholding being a model myself, but I understood what she wanted.
This resulted in a really nice photo series, published at Vice –the second part of that series is about Rebecca, my RealDoll.
Late last year Claire contacted me again. She was asked to have these doll photos presented at an exhibition. The theme of the exhibition is “unattained love”. I do like photo art, sure it should be shown!
We talked about how to present them. Claire decided to have audio with it, in which the doll tells about her secret relationship. Rebecca, my doll in these photos, is telling about her secret relationship with her boss 
Rebecca was invited to host the exhibition. But they didn’t agree with her terms 
So Kayla is there, over the last years she was stuck from doing more traveling, and this is a good opportunity to show that she’s still around!
Click image for Gallery and full-size photos
Remember Kayla from visiting London and Arnhem. And now she is hosting this exhibition in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, at the Rietveld Paviljoen, a place for art and photography.
The exhibition is not very large, but that keeps it nice and clear. There is photo art and there are several art installations, all giving a different interpretation of ‘unattained love’. Funny though, apart from the photo series by Claire, there’s another photo series featuring a love doll.
At the exhibition I took photos of the photos and art objects presented there. The first part of the photo series in the Gallery shows love dolls as interpreted by the artists, the second part shows other art presented at this exhibition. The last photo was taken at the ‘cultural café’ where some of the artists were interviewed and had discussions with the audience.
Please enjoy 
Comments
Art at the service of dolls, and vice versa.
Interesting. The dolls enter the institutional places of culture.
I think that art in all its forms is, in addition to being a pleasure for the mind, one of the best ways to enhance the image of dolls in the eyes of a curious and open minded public who then influence cultural trends.