Ida is a mixed-media plush doll created by Sophie Helsinger, a Portland based artist, most known for her evocative paintings. This piece, constructed from muslin cloth, polymer clay, braided cotton cord and crushed velvet combines machine sewing with delicate hand-stitched details. The doll’s clay face–secured to the plush body with thin white threads features painted blue eyeshadow with botanical adornments, flush cheeks, and painted lips is sealed with a gloss finish, contrasting her matte fabric body. Her hair, made from black cord, is arranged in a graphic, shallacked pattern spirals into small curls that rest beneath each ear. This heavily stylized 1920s-inspired haircut becomes more childlike through the inclusion of the slightly lifted pigtail forms that emerge off of the surface.
Ida’s plush body is soft and supple, with long tube-like legs that extend from the body. Notably- she has no arms. An omission that heightens her sense of passivity and vulnerability, leaving only her expression and positioning to communicate. The absence reads as a deliberate quieting gesture, focusing instead on her stillness. The crushed velvet dress she wears is loose and unstructured, providing only the vague silhouette of a skirt to further emphasize her innocence. At the end of her overly long legs she wears sewn on mary-jane shoes. This unmistakably childlike detail introduces a tender and nostalgic note to her otherwise unsettling presence. There is always a tension, a subtle distortion that suggests the ways childhood memory can be both sanctuary and trap. Ida’s arm-lessness, for instance, could imply an inability to protect oneself. Her exaggerated long legs, a point of view distortion or her mask-like clay face, a performed or imposed innocence.