TOY GARDENS | anthamlyn

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TOY GARDENS

TOY GARDENS

12 Unique works

Hand sewn 20cm x 20cm x 20cm
Hand sewn coated fabrics, soft padlocks

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Limted Releases
Love, Death & Velvet
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This is Not a Toy

Made to the exact specifications of lifesize inflatable versions. This unique series of five meticulously hand stitched miniature bouncy castles are each stuffed and encased within their own custom-built permanently locked display vitrines. Inspired by the childhood myth that a goldfish will grow to the size of its bowl as a metaphor for a movement away from play into adulthood. The castles are installed in ascending order, starting at palm sized and enlarging to the point of almost total abstraction.

The act of encasing these miniatures is also an attempt to render the castles as nostalgic relics of play; preserved and untouched. By placing the soft handmade form in tandem with the hard, outer vitrine and padlock. I want the scale and materiality to suggest both intimacy and distance simultaneously. Memories protected in time yet rendered untouchable and presented as obscure archival commodities like antique collectables in their original packaging.

2024. Ant Hamlyn

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