Dolldom: JSK @ DVN

Saturday, January 15, 2022

JSK @ DVN

Julian S. Kalinowski, conqueror of the impossible being creator extraordinaire of handmade dolls that feel like they came via time-machine from the second half of the 20th century, is being feted with an event at Dries Van Noten's store in La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles from January 15 to February 12, 2022.

Kalinowski most generously invited Dolldom to provide images of his dolls to accompany the gorgeous displays of OOAK creations in the gallery adjacent to the store of the emminent Belgian fashion designer. A collaboration began for the selection of the images.

These two, a seductive Séverine and a sulky Solange, were seriously considered, but they did not make the cut.

A second process yielded a trio of wonderful hopefuls: two Sylvain and a Séverine.

These made the cut but, alas, the RAW files were missing from Dolldom's archives.

Note: Dolldom's archivist is on an indefinite leave of absence and Caprice de la Falaise has come out of retirement to be in charge of the department.

Dolldom's photographers immediately went into production mode and created a new series of close-up portraits.

From which this trio came out as the winner:

Poster-sized prints were made on glamorous glossy paper at Photoworks in San Francisco and shipped to Los Angeles via Express Mail to get there with plentiful time for the installation. But, as of this writing, the prints have yet to be delivered to the gallery.

So...

Dolldom and Kalinowski decided to make things work (i.e., go against the forces of evil) and ordered surrogate posters from the incredible team at the FedEx store at 5550 Wilshire Boulevard, who had them done in less than an hour and then hand delivered by superhero and Kalinowski colleague Brian Forbes. Whew! Although these posters are stand-ins for the precious missing prints, they are the real troupers coming in, in the nick of time, to make sure that the show goes on!