Annette Messager

In the 1990's, Messager began to work with soft toys, a replacement for the real taxidermy birds she used in the 1970's. In Fables and Tales, 1991, the soft creatures are cruelly squeezed between piles of books.




"Messager's work can be obvious as well as secretive and strange."


"But despite its childlike themes, there is nothing innocent anywhere in Messager's work."


In Messager's work, 'things you cannot look at properly become all the more intriguing.'


























'I like to tell stories... children's stories are monstrous,' Annette Messager has said, and much of her work of the last four decades is based on toys and  childhood. Remains II (Family (II), 2000.


Messager is known mainly for her installation work which often incorporates photographs, prints and drawings, and various materials.

Annette Messager's work which is based on toys and childhood has inspired me with a variety of ideas that can be independent experiments. The idea of asking younger children to record down their favourite toy, and doing the same but with asking teenagers to record down what their favourite toy was and a memory from their childhood could be a beginning to a larger experiment. This idea can lead into creating a response from their memories, creating an installation with the notes and the toys could be one example.


I personally have many memories of which I can recall fondly, but I can't specifically remember what my favourite toy was. But if I think back hard enough I'm sure I could scrap something back to the surface of my  memories. This could link to the idea of projections, projecting their past onto themselves, like bringing their memories back to life. When asking teenagers my age, they too struggled to remember what they were most truly fond of. But if thought deeply, then projecting their favourite toy onto themselves can bring that part of their childhood back into their life, personality, being their portrait.