Therapeutic Play: Care, Giving, and Being with Dolls

Description

Therapeutic Play: Care, Giving, and Being with Dolls
A lecture by Emilie St-Hilaire (Concordia University), followed by a conversation with Freyja Hartzell (BGC)November 9 at 6 pm
Bard Graduate Center, 38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

 

From sex dolls to dementia care therapy, dolls are increasingly used for companionship and comfort, and they have been shown to produce positive affective states that can be healing and enjoyable. In this lecture, multidisciplinary artist and scholar Emilie St-Hilaire explores a number of interactions between human-like dolls and human beings to reframe such synthetic relationships as a contemporary form of Pygmalionism.

Image: Still from Lars and the Real Girl, 2007. Directed by Craig Gillespie. 

 

Emilie St-Hilaire is a multidisciplinary artist and doctoral candidate in the humanities at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her interdisciplinary research examines the sub-cultural phenomenon of reborn dolls (hyper-realistic baby dolls) from a feminist perspective. She has authored and co-authored writing in Canadian Art Review and the Journal International de Bioéthique. St-Hilaire has exhibited her artwork at Canadian and international galleries and festivals. Her work has been supported by the FRQSC (Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et culture), Concordia University, Hexagram Network, Francofonds, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Date & Time

Wed, Nov 9, 2022 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Venue Details

Bard Graduate Center

38 West 86th Street
New York, New York 10024

Bard Graduate Center