Visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock has been collecting white dolls for two decades. In 2018, he presented his collection alongside black dolls from the Philadelphia Doll Museum and a new set of his own creation, in the show Moundverse Infants at Temple Contemporary. Hancock says that, as a medium, dolls can provoke surprising feelings of nostalgia and humanity, and the juxtaposition of white and black dolls can be revealing.

In these interview clips, Hancock discusses his interest in dolls as representations of identity and culture, and we hear from Barbara Whiteman, founder and executive director of the Doll Museum, as well as Aida Villanueva, a member of Temple Contemporary’s Young Curators Council.

Hancock discusses the objects he collects and creates, the meanings they carry, and the expectations they can create and subvert.

Hancock and Villanueva explain how dolls can shift perceptions about identity and power.

Hancock and Whiteman talk about the role dolls play in our shared cultural history.

Trenton Doyle Hancock is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work has, through a variety of media, explored an extended mythology centering on the Mounds, a group of fictional creatures he created. Select works presented in the Center-supported Moundverse Infants (2018) are currently on view in Mind of the Mound: Critical Mass at MASSMoCA.