My partner was lucky enough to visit London during the opening weekend of Yayoi Kusama's latest exhibition at the Tate Modern; while he was a big fan of the artist's work, I was new to her polka-dot covered world. For me, Kusama's works employ an obsessive degree of repetition to create works which completely consume a space, and generate claustrophobic and disorientating situations for her audience. Ranging from her early watercolours and , to 'accumulation sculptures', left, and encapsulating installations such as her fluorescent polka dot adorned room 'I'm Here, but Nothing', the. I personally found the most captivating works to be those from the 'Sex Obsession' series, in which domestic objects are 'phallus-covered'. The titles however, may have been what interested me most; names such as 'Phallus Dress' (1961) refer to the penis-like fabric shapes encrusted onto the garment, however suggest the symbolic relation to the system of power which the penis signals. I began to consider whether it would be possible to attach these penis-like form to any object in an attempt to transfer the power it represents.

Continuing my exploration into the manipulation of appropriated objects, I combined the arms of a Barbie to create the penis below. Playing upon the idea of Eve having been created from Adam's rib, similar to Duchamp 'Objet-dard', I found it particularly intriguing to consider how this "female" yet genital free doll and be reconstructed to create this gender - and power - signifying "accessory".