Laurie Simmons (b. 1949)

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

Laurie Simmons (b. 1949)
(i) Kaleidoscope House #2
(ii) Kaleidoscope House #8
(iii) Kaleidoscope Dollhouse
(i): signed, titled, numbered and dated 'ed. 5/5 2000 Kaleidoscope House #2 Laurie Simmons' (on the reverse)
(ii): signed, titled, numbered and dated 'ed. 5/5 2000 Kaleidoscope House #8 Laurie Simmons' (on the reverse)
(i), (ii): digital colour coupler print mounted on Sintra
(iii): abs plastic, acrylic and utensils
(i), (ii): 24 x 16¼in. (61 x 41.4cm.)
(iii): 23¼ x 22⅜ x 29½in. (59 x 56.8 x 75cm.)
(3)(i), (ii): Executed in 2000, this work is number five from an edition of five
(iii): Executed in 2000, this work is from an unknown edition size

Other Kaleidoscope Dollhouses are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, London and National Building Museum, Washington D.C.

Provenance:
(i)-(iii)
Galerie 20.21, Essen.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2002.

Exhibited:
(i), (ii)
Holte, GL. Holtegaard Breda-Fonden, Et sarlight syn, 2002.
(iii)
New York, Deitch Projects, Laurie Simmons & Peter Wheelwright: Kaleidoscope House, 2000 (another Kaleidoscope Dollhouse from the edition exhibited).
London, Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, Small Stories, 2014 (another Kaleidoscope Dollhouse from the edition exhibited).
Washington D.C., National Building Museum, Cool and Collected: Recent Acquisitions, 2014-2015 (another Kaleidoscope Dollhouse from the edition exhibited).

Literature:
P. Viladas, 'Welcome to the Dollhouse', in The New York Times Magazine, 8 October 2000.

Specialist Notes:

‘The Kaleidoscope House came out of our shared interests in domesticity and in particular the changing practices of home and family. Our individual work in photography and architecture has focused on these issues, and the promptings of our respective children have often figured in our thinking. Clearly, there is a need for a new dollhouse in the family playroom. Our hope is that The Kaleidoscope House with its sliding transparencies and changing aspects will give a colourful view into new playful possibilities’ – Laurie Simmons & Peter Wheelwright, New York, January 2000

Laurie Simmons and Peter Wheelwright have brought the dollhouse into the 21st century, presenting a 1:12 scale modernist architectural house with sliding transparent colour walls that enable the house to be used from all angles. Simmons was initially approached by Larry Mangel of Bozart Toys to create a dollhouse given her interest in dolls as expressed in her photography. It was only after photographing the Stettheimer dollhouse housed in the Museum of the City of New York that she agreed to undertake the project. After recruiting friend and architect Wheelwright, the chairman of the architecture department at Parsons School of Design, the two set about conceiving a contemporary dollhouse with playful possibilities.

With art and architecture by artists such as Ron Arad, Jonathan Adler, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger also available, the house had the possibility of becoming any collector’s dream house.

Simmons subsequently did a series of ten photographs of the interior of the dollhouse in her characteristic style.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.