Girls Playing House 1979 - 1983

Editor: This photograph, "Girls Playing House" by Mary E. Frey, captures a seemingly ordinary scene in black and white. There's a fascinating tension between the staged domesticity of the play and the real textures of childhood. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: What grabs me is how the manufactured setting implicates the girls into domestic roles. The material surroundings—the toys, the posters, even the carpet—all point to cultural expectations and the construction of gender through consumption. Editor: So, you're focusing on how the objects shape the girls' identities? Curator: Exactly. Consider the labor involved in maintaining this space. Who is responsible for that carpet, the toys, the posters? It speaks volumes about the unseen work underpinning the "play." Editor: That's given me a lot to consider about the work behind the image, not just what's in it.