Andrea Angeli
Andrea Angeli was born in Argentina to Italian parents. She has a Bachelor of Art and Sciences from the University of Toledo. She also is a graduate student in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo.

Andrea is interested in a variety of subjects and one of them is photography.

The Artist’s Statements

My exhibition at the Eberly Center for Women consists of two profoundly related groups of color photographs: 1) some of the pictures from my mannequin series and 2) pictures of scenes from the Bible with dolls and toys. These are my statements about both series.

Series I

Although the title of these series is "Idollatry", I do not worship or adore dolls and mannequins in a religious way, or substitute them for idols. I use this name as a double entendre for the way people sometimes honor women that look almost perfect, as mannequins do.

I like mannequins because I like dolls, and mannequins are big dolls. They make great models since they don't move, and look always presentable. Their hands and arms fall on the floor sometimes, but they get fixed. Also, I can save the socialization: they don't talk and don't hear. And they are free. I don't have to pay for their modeling. It is as if they are there waiting for me to take pictures of them.

My mannequin series document the present fashion. Many years from now, people could look at them and make comments about the clothes, hairstyles, and even vehicles that are part of the pictures, like I do when I look at old pictures. These pictures are also about the ideal female figure, imposed on us by the media and society in general. Most of the pictures in my mannequin series have reflections. I consider this a good combination because reflections mirror the world like mannequins represent humans.

Mannequins exceed humans in some ways. For example, they don't get knots on their hair, have bad breath, have PMS, retain water every month, or have pimples. They don't get depressed or sick. They don't have to shave or have ingrown hairs. On the other hand, they don't have any human qualities or feelings .... Or maybe dolls and mannequins live in their own world hidden from us.

Series II

My photographs of dolls and toys parody familiar scenes from the Gospels often reproduced in famous paintings from the Renaissance. I did not copy any particular painting. Instead, I created my own compositions based on reproductions of paintings that I have seen in books and museums.

Assuming that many viewers and especially children will not understand the scenes, I used generic titles for my versions of these Biblical events. I do not intend to make light of the glorification of religious themes, but to inquiry the obtuse terminology and interpretations used in art history. I played with the fact that many paintings from the Renaissance (my favorite period) were retitled and misdated. Also, many of those paintings were made by the artists' assistants and then attributed to their masters who simply signed the finished work.

Some of the paintings from the Early Renaissance show Madonnas who are much bigger than the rest of the figures (hierarchical composition) in order to emphasize their relative importance. In odd juxtaposition to those paintings where Madonna is the Queen of Heaven, "my Madonna" is the Queen of my toys, and "Joseph" (the bear) is the King. I have treasured these toys and the doll representing the mother of Mary since I was a little girl.