Exclusive collaboration of Popovy Sisters and Ingrid Baars.

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"As a child I was very passionate about dolls and whenever I got to choose one for myself I totally focused on her facial features above anything else. Of course it had to be a doll with great beauty but more important it had to be alive,

as much alive as possible. It had to have a soul.

When I came across the work of the Popovy Sisters I was really excited.

Of course I was captivated by the beauty of their art-dolls, the Haute Couture and the finesse of their work but above all I was fascinated about the same edge between a living–creature with a soul and an innate object,

a very fine line that I investigate in my own work as well.

 There were more things in common; the large heart shaped heads, the elongated neck, the curly sexual lips, eyes put far apart.

The way the childish, the infantile is combined with strong features and expressions of grown up women is exactly what I also discovered in classical African masks and sculptures where part of my inspiration stems from for the series ‘Afrique’ that I’m working on (e.g. In Fang sculptures the artists show the connection between death and rebirth by combining infantile forms with that of adults).

 Following each other from a distance for a while it seemed logical when I was asked by the Sisters to collaborate and have one of their dolls be my model for once."

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~ Ingrid Baars