Tabitha Moses

Tabitha first focussed on the Egyptology collection, and was in particular taken by the pathos of a small mummy, of a young girl about 6 or 8 years old, which lay on its own in a glass case. Tabitha wanted to create some dolls for the girl to have with her in her after-life. She collected a number of small dolls, fabrics and threads, and worked on 9 of them as a group.

The curator had reservations about introducing artefacts into what was both a resting place of a human being, and a highly controlled environment. This led Tabitha to place the dolls into the cases containing a wide range of artefacts from ancient Egypt. The effect was powerful, in that they were encountered unexpectedly, provoking thought and raising questions about their origin and purpose. The combination of doll and material, and the manner of wrapping, also created a sense of pathos, especially with ‘Bridal doll’.

Working in the public gallery, Tabitha created a purse out of human hair, responding to queries from the public. The purse was inserted unobtrusively into a cabinet of Victorian costumes.

The oral social histories intrigued Tabitha. She selected a poignant account by an elderly lady, who had been the cleverest girl in the school, but too poor to own a dress, and had borrowed one from a friend to go to a party. Tabitha reconstructed a dress from a 1940’s silk nightdress, and placed it in a conventional display cabinet, with a recording of the account available next to it.

For more about Tabitha's work, see Dolls

www.tabithakyokomoses.com