Inside the dollhouse where childhood comfort becomes a cage

Growing up in Grimsby and feeling the pull between fond childhood memories and the desire to forge her own identity, Southampton Solent University student Abby Fleming has channelled that very personal experience into a striking sculptural final major project and earned a first-class degree in the process.

Abby's project, Little Miss Manor, a nickname that became the work's title, takes the form of a handcrafted dollhouse inhabited by eerily lifelike prosthetic limbs, exploring nostalgia, transition, and the complex feelings that come with growing out of the family home.

"The work focuses on growing outside of the family home, focusing on my own journey coming from a small and quite close-minded town," says Abby. "It reflects the duality of looking back on a nice childhood with good memories but also living with restrictions and taking on a kind of persona for others. Overall, the dollhouse acts as a cage and represents the complex transition from childhood into a more self-identified person."

The project took twelve weeks of full working days to complete. The dollhouse itself is built from cardboard, paper mache and plaster bandages, materials chosen deliberately for their connection to childhood making and play.

Emerging from the dollhouse are prosthetic limbs made from silicone and soft foam using professional special effects techniques. Thin layers of primary-coloured silicone paints were built up gradually to achieve convincingly realistic skin tones.

The mismatched pairing of a man's feet and a woman's arms creates a quietly unsettling effect: the work appears domestic and familiar at first glance but reveals its strangeness on closer inspection.

Lottie Carr, Lecturer for BA (Hons) Prosthetics and Special Effects Design, praised the quality and intentionality of the outcome: "Abby's work practically demonstrates a professional skill set in prosthetic making, achieving a strong body of work, informing the viewer about the subject matter, constructing a narrative visually with an enthusiastic tone."

Course Leader Donna Bevan noted that Little Miss Manor stood out even among an exceptionally strong cohort.

"We have had some outstanding work this year on the Prosthetics and Special Effects course, much of it delightfully gory and full of attention to detail. Abby's work has gone above and beyond in evoking a simultaneous sense of pleasure and unease, creating an uncanny effect. Someone suggested there could be someone in the house but when you look closely, the strangeness comes from the mixing of materials and mismatched body parts, with a man's feet and a woman's arms."

Abby graduated with a first-class degree in BA (Hons) Prosthetics and Special Effects Design. Her portfolio can be viewed here.