Real Doll, Ebony 3
Martine Gutierrez, American, born 1989
2013
Archival inkjet print
8/10
Image: 8 × 12 1/16 in. (20.3 × 30.6 cm)
Sheet: 12 × 16 1/16 in. (30.5 × 40.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hazen, by exchange
2014.25.11
Portfolio / Series Title
Real Dolls
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Initialled, on reverse, lower right, in graphite: MG; numbered, on reverse, lower left, in graphite: 8/10
Label
With her Real Dolls series, Gutierrez navigates boundaries of gender and performance. In Ebony 3 she tackles racial identity by using her own body. Though often described using labels such as Latinx, biracial, transgender, and indigenous, Gutierrez has stated that "language never seemed like a way to clarify who [she] was." Instead, she prefers to live in fluid states of ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. In Ebony 3, Gutierrez darkens her skin to transform into the sex doll. Within the ambiguity she describes, does she exhibit her own complex relationship with identity or curate a performance of racial appropriation? Perhaps, like her formation of identity, her decisions lie somewhere in the uncertain space in between. From the 2023 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 111, Taking Up Space: Forming Body and Identity, curated by Milanne Berg '24, Homma Family Intern
Course History
WGST 65.6, Radical Sexuality: Of Color, Wildness and Fabulosity, Eng-Beng Lim, Winter 2015
WRIT 5, Visual Culture, Aimee Bahng, Winter 2015
WRIT 8, Writing with Media, Kenneth Bauer, Spring 2015
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 111, Taking Up Space: Forming Body and Identity, Milanne Berg, Class of 2024, Homma Family Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 4 March - 22 April 2023.
About Face: Self-Portraiture in Contemporary Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 23-August 30, 2015.
Provenance
Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2014.
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