The Doll Project

The DOLL PROJECT: “Red Wine & Chocolate or Another Doll Dies,” conducted in two actions after midnight to dawn, New York City, circa 1999- 2000. 50+ dolls salvaged from Thrift Stores and closets across the city, myriad decorative (and mutilation) supplies and tools, ample string and glue. Crew of approx 10 agents operating as TFIP, the Task Force for Inventive Philanthropy. Documentation: EEK, atari 2000 & CSH. agent mT author and action choreographer.

Mission & Making Of: In an era of no-dancing cabaret law enforcement and rapid gentrification  that only intensified over the next two decades, artist circles and activists united in attempts to stem the tide or salvage some sliver of the city for nurturing creative culture. Rather than the damning defeats of direct conflict with the powers that govern and own, these actions– such as the conga line circling City Hall, the subway action parties and Rev Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir– were often hyperbolic, irreverent and lightly twinged with mischief. 

THE DOLL PROJECT was a twice realized love affair with the city coupled with a manifesto of hyperbolic demands: Dolls collected from thrift stores of New York. Grown men and women hauling bags stuffed with dolls to a secret headquarters for a doll mutilation and re-creation extravaganza. Red wine and chocolate, miscellaneous arts supplies: glitter, toothpicks, wax, yarn, safety pins, etc. Two teams, dressed in their best evening black, some in white face, some in cowboy hats, canvas the city streets from SOHO to Wall Street with crew photographers in tow, hanging dolls to street lamp and street light poles and fire escapes as the wee hours graduate to dawn. 

We will not stop mutilating dolls and hanging them in public effigy until the following 5 demands are met:

1. Jewish and Christian leaders RESTORE one verse to the Old Testament: Thou canst dance if though wantest wherever thou fuckest please. DANCING IS RELIGION.
2. OPERATION SAFIR-RUMI: All NYPD officers must write 3 20 line poems to be read after the Miranda and during all interviews. (Those with tongues may serve once a week as artist models at NYC universities: Operation NYPD Buff)
3. Mayor R.G. Announces a mandatory 2-hour siesta for New Yorkers with this statement: New Yorkers don’t need more late night adult clubs. What they need is more sleep and daytime sex
4. Starting January 1, 1999 until January 1, 2000, a 17″ replica of our logo must be printed on the 23rd page of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
5. Four Square Blocks in Downtown Manhattan must be relinquished to the government of TFIP. END THE REAL ESTATE HOSTAGE CRISIS. LIVE in the GROOVIST SUCCESSION ZONE.

6. BONUS DEMAND: The following must be on all menus in Manhattan: Unlimited Red Wine and Chocolate, compliments of the House