Eleanor Macnair isn’t just playing with Play-Doh—she’s reinventing photography with it. Her art takes famous photographs and transforms them into colorful Play-Doh sculptures, remixing visual culture icons with everyday materials. While her approach is playful, it raises some pretty big questions about what makes a photograph genuine and how art can break through traditional boundaries.
Challenging Timelessness and Reproduction
Macnair’s creations go beyond just looking appealing. They examine how art stands the test of time and explore where the limits of reproduction truly lie, offering brand-new ways to interpret these well-known images. At her current exhibition, “Recreated Moments – The Play-Doh Icons of Photographic History,” visitors take a real photographic journey through time. The show traces the history of photography over nearly 200 years, presenting the Play-Doh reinterpretations in chronological order and covering 186 years since the invention of photography. The exhibition is open until June 22.
(Cover photo: Eleanor Macnair. Original photograph: Diane Arbus: Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967)
