Imagination was also the ingredient that lifted the NSW State Archives exhibition ‘Marriage: Love + Law’, recently shown at Penrith Regional Gallery (30 March – 16 June), out of the realm of pure social history. Contemporary artists Blak Douglas, Freya Jobbins, Danie Mellor and Raquel Ormella were asked to respond to the colonial construct of marriage, and the results were more sobering than they were celebratory.

Through a four-tiered wedding cake of cavorting Barbie dolls, Jobbins succeeded in embodying a history of marriage in Australia which has often seen its citizens become playthings of the powers that be – first as a means to further control its convict arrivals, then as a way to bestow ‘respectability’ on its settler class, leading to the more recent contractions and expansions of the Marriage Act 1961 under the Howard and Turnbull governments.

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The idea of documenting one’s self is not a new idea. Throughout history artists have documented the beauty and the decay of their own form, with artists such as Van Gogh and Rembrandt making it a central part of their work throughout their lifetime. Ballarat’s The Lost Ones Gallery explores this notion in THIS IS ME: Examination of the art of self-image – currently on display until 11 September 2016.

The process of creating a self-portrait is considered a valuable part of the artist’s philosophical exploration of “who am I” or declaration of “this is me”. The essence of the self-portrait is about control – controlling the way the self-image is represented but has also been linked to preoccupations with personal salvation and self-scrutiny.

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Using dismembered plastic parts from old dolls and other toys, artist Freya Jobbins assembles these exceedingly strange portraits of people and pop culture icons. Chances are when viewing these you fall firmly into one of two camps: the highly amused or the highly disturbed. Regardless, it’s hard to deny the incredible amount of labor that goes into each piece, from the exploration of form and the use of color to make each anatomical amalgamation.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and raised in West Sydney, Jobbins is influenced in part by Guiseppe Archimboldo’s fruit and vegetable paintings as well as Ron Mueck’s oversized humans. You can see more freaky faces over in Jobbin’s online gallery and on Facebook. (via Juxtapoz, FastCo)

We wouldn’t consider most plastic surgeons to be artists per se, but the label certainly applies to South Africa-born “surgeon” Freya Jobbins. Instead of applying face lifts and tummy tucks, Jobbins creates three-dimensional humanoid assemblages from discarded plastic doll parts.

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You can’t go past one of Freya Jobbins’ distinctive pieces without taking a second glance. Ranging from assemblage, installation, collage and printmaking, it’s hard to believe this internationally renowned artist only started practising her craft in recent years as a second career.

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