If You Know Who She Is, It’s Time For Botox

The toy became a rage among young children. Joana Schneider transforms this artificial mini-Polly Pocket world into a new universe: a life-sized installation consisting of an iconic heart-shaped Polly Pocket house in which you can walk around and discover the toy lifestyle life made by Schneider. She crafted a collection of beautiful handmade clothes and accessories from discarded ropes and leftovers, the same materials that have been her artistic medium since graduation. She asks the question: how do toys influence our perception of ourselves?

New Life

This solo exhibition might be her most critical one yet. However, Schneider has previously expressed her opinion against the disappearance of traditional crafts such as thatching, stitching with reed, and rope-making, which she revives in her own work in a new, more labor-intensive way. The artist also repeatedly demonstrates that we throw away valuable materials. At the same time, she gives old fishing ropes and remnant fabrics a beautiful and unique new life.

In stark contrast to Schneider’s artworks and installations, Polly Pocket stands for a generation, which the artist herself is part of, ranging in age from 25 to 45 years old, and which grew up with fast fashion and toys made of artificial materials in loud, cheesy colors. It is also an Instagram generation that acquires the latest trends via videos about lip fillers and Botox, and for whom this seems to be as natural as it was before to go to the nail salon or stick on fake eyelashes.