Mirka Mora’s interest in dolls and puppets, or soft sculpture, began with her theatre and mime training. As an adult she also collected antique dolls, before finally embarking on creating them herself in 1970. The characters she birthed in cloth felt, to Mora, like substitute children; at the time, her sons were living apart from her.

Indeed, despite being mere paint and cloth, Moras dolls felt alive. When they were first exhibited in 1971, John Reed wrote:

“You are not entering an “exhibition” but rather a new world, a world of illusion… a country that may be strange but it is also beautiful and compellingly familiar. This is the artist’s country”.

Double-Headed Creature brims with love and imagination, hugged for decades, a vessel for the artist’s spirit and enduring legacy. In the later stages of her career, Mora held doll-making workshops for members of the public, many of whom reported the experience as life-changing.

In the simplicity and curiosity of the doll, Mora discovered something miraculous - pure delight.

Mirka MORA (1928 - 2018)
'Double-Headed Creature' c. 1974
Hand-painted soft sculpture
Image Size: 32 x 15 cm
Dimensions: 32 x 15 x 5 cm
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition: Good: Signs of wear, reflective of age and material; light fraying right fin; discolouration.
 
© Mirka Mora / Copyright Agency 2022