Barbie

After going through major life altering emotional and abusive situations in 2009, I started using Barbie Art to express the pain and torment I was going through.
Although most of my work revolves around women’s issues, gender differences and symbolism, I am best able to express the darker side of gender conflict with Barbies. Barbie is a great medium because everyone has some stereotypical idea of Barbie and can relate to her as an iconic symbol of women regardless of how twisted and dysfunctional it may be. I feel Barbie represents what the world expects women to be, look like and perform like and who better to show how absurd that expectation is than Barbie herself? I hope these funny yet poignant sculptures provoke thought and conversation around the socially influenced insanity we, as women, often experience and eventually…hopefully… find ourselves liberated from.

“Barbie, as an iconic cultural signifier of womanhood and a potent vehicle for visualizing the darker dimensions of gender conflict, became central to her inquiry. Vaughan regards the figure as embodying socially imposed expectations and as an effective means of exposing their absurdity. Through humorous yet striking sculptural interventions, the works question the social pressures and irrational norms frequently imposed on women, generating dialogue and ultimately conveying a possibility of liberation.”

— Erhan Us/ ArtRKL.com

Barbie

Driftwood

Archetypes