Woman/Purple Dress/Kitchen 1976

Laurie Simmons made this gelatin silver print, "Woman/Purple Dress/Kitchen", sometime in the twentieth century, and it’s like stepping into a dollhouse of the mind. Simmons isn't laying down brushstrokes here; she’s staging a scene. The textures of the plastic toys and the stark black and white tones create this amazing contrast. The whole image has this grainy quality to it that reminds you of a memory fading. The eye is immediately drawn to the woman in the centre, standing rigid in her little kitchen. It's a picture of domesticity, but not the cozy kind. The woman's stillness and the hyper-real quality of the objects lend a dreamlike quality. It makes you think of Cindy Sherman, who also played with identity and performance. But in the end, it's the open endedness of the piece that keeps you coming back.