Artworks

Worry dolls are little dolls that you put under your pillow at night to take away your fears and anxieties while you're asleep. They're very comforting and mostly benign little things, except, that is, in the imagination of the Tasmanian artist Matt Coyle.

Matt has made a very dark worry doll story, in the form of a graphic novel. Graphic novels are a cross between a serious comic and a story book, where the images drive the narrative, and they're a very popular form right now. In Matt Coyle's Worry Doll, the black and white drawings are extremely detailed and they took Matt Coyle six years to complete. The Worry Doll started out as a children's story -- but didn't end up that way.

In this story, the dolls include a golliwog and a ventriloquist's dummy who come alive one night to find the family they belong to has been murdered. The horrified toys run away and get into a terrifying adventure of their own. For Artworks, Franz Docherty visited Matt Coyle at his home in Hobart.

Images

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Guests

Matt Coyle
Artist

Further Information

Uber Gallery
I Am Afraid, opens December 4

Criterion Gallery
An exhibition of prints from Worry Doll on show until October 27

Presenter

Amanda Smith

Story Researcher and Producer

Debra McCoy

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