Whitney Fairhurst-Curtis likes to keep things weird. That much is evidenced by her “odd dolls” — plushies embellished with bloodshot eyes, sly smirks, and, most notably, genitalia. Most of them have at least one — if not three — private parts. Certain personas, like Dennis Dickin’ Around, are particularly well-endowed, sporting 113 “bright pink ding-dongs,” Fairhurst-Curtis gibes. Needless to say, these aren’t your grandma’s dollies. “My strange dolls seem to have developed themselves from a simple idea into more of a complex commentary,” the artist explains in a press release. “These strange characters live in a different world [and] therefore don’t face the same boundaries as we do.” This spring, Fairhurst-Curtis will bring a troop of her quirky creations to the FW Gallery at Woolworth Walk for Night Screamers: March of the Dolls. The artist’s work will be presented alongside equally eccentric drawings by her husband, Chris Curtis. According to Fairhurst-Curtis, it was Chris’ disregard for convention that first motivated her to fashion an odd doll. “I made one in an afternoon,” she explains. “From then, it just became a passion to make weird creatures that are both cute and disturbing.”
Night Screamers: March of the Dolls: March 1-29; Opening Reception: Friday, March 1, 4-6pm
FW Gallery at Woolworth Walk / 25 Haywood St., Asheville