Panamarenko

1966

Object, 138 x 134 x 63 cm.
Materials: styropor, felt, metal

Collection: Collection Agnes & Frits Becht (Inv. no. WV5).

A life-sized doll in pin-up pose, made from polystyrene and covered with felt.  The polystyrene used here was left over from construction of Das Flugzeug.

'There was such an excess of pieces and edges that they could be easily pasted together to make the arms and torso.' - Panamarenko

Molly Peters was based on a picture of an actrice of this name in Playboy. To enhance its sensuality, Panamarenko provides the doll with bright red lips, a revealing outfit and pink hair.  She wears a massage glove on her left hand.  For the exhibition 'The Première of Brain Expansion in Color', the doll dangled from the ceiling by a thick rope fastened under its arms. 

'I didn't think of it as pop art.  Pop art was just a name that seemed to mean: make whatever you feel like making.  Well, I felt like making this kind of gal from Playboy myself, carving her by hand!' - Panamarenko

(source: Hans Willemse and Paul Morrens, in: 'Copyright Panamarenko', 2005)