Soft Touch (mother and child)
2006
Cast iron, cast porcelain, painted wood
Installation dimensions variable; doll, 6.5 x 1.5 x 5/8 "

Slides 1-4:
From Soft Touch/Wondering Eye, a father-daughter exhibition with photographs by R. Darrell Bock.
Soho20 Chelsea Gallery, New York City.

Download Exhibition Catalog

Download R. Darrell Bock
Photograph Annotations

Slides 5-8: From Maternal Metaphors II, a group exhibition including Soft Touch (mother and child) with hand penciled poetry by Zofia Burr.
Ohio University Art Galleries, Athens, OH.

Download Soft Touch (mother and child) Book

Soft Touch consists of a series of twelve iron casts of a small girl's hand in various positions, each resting on
its own foot square painted wood block. With each hand is a plain female peg doll cast in porcelain and jointed with single strands of white embroidery thread. Zofia Burr's poetic response to each pair's material and gestural implications is penciled on the top face of its respective block. 

The pairing of a sturdy girl's hand supporting the limp and fragile adult proportioned doll reflects the ostensible reversal of roles that takes place as the daughter's strength surpasses that of her mother. The doll may be read as a vexed symbol for the loss of physical independence.  Ultimately we want the work to suggest, however, that the relation between those who nurture and those who are nurtured is more complex and reciprocal than the idea of “reversal” encompasses.
The doll is also complete in a way that contrasts with the fragmentary nature of the hand. Soft Touch evokes the emotional ambiguity of maternal authority in the face
of a daughter's growing will to separate and self-empower, as well as the illusiveness of physical and emotional autonomy. 

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