(b. Rio de Janeiro, 1959; lives and works in Porto Alegre, Brazil).
Lia Menna Barreto uses dolls, plastic toys, and other children’s trinkets as her primary media and transforms them through various techniques from sweet, sentimental objects into unsettling, often mutilated artworks. In Sleeping Doll she plays with the concept of the "pajama bag" doll, which has been stretched into an oversized fuzzy pink pelt large enough for the artist to climb into. Its plastic face grotesquely dwarfed by its newly expanded girth, the doll hangs on the wall like a hunter’s trophy. Suggesting a primal desire to return to the womb, it nevertheless demonstrates the futility of the desire to recapture a prenatal sense of security and warmth.
In another series, Menna Barreto fuses swaths of flowing silk, bought in the local markets of Pôrto Alegre, Brazil, with the plastic toys and flowers that she collects. Using a hot, heavy iron to melt the toys onto the fabric,
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