The Agenda

by Jaime Lowe

There are very few places open twenty-four hours in Providence besides gas stations and convenience stores. Now instead of ethanol and Twinkies, one can fill up on art at any time of the day or night, thanks to the Dirt Palace’s free twenty-four hour storefront window exhibits. The Dirt Palace, a feminist-owned art collective, has been host to a variety of monthly exhibits by artists and community groups since their purchase of a formerly abandoned library building in Olneyville Square. This month, a collection of six years’ worth of tiny dolls, made out of felt and various other fabrics by 16-year-old Rowe, Massachusetts resident Abagail Phelps, is on display.

The window at 14 Olneyville Square houses at least 100 of Phelps’s hand-crafted dolls, organized by size, lined up next to each other on black felt boards. The dolls, which are inspired by cartoon characters, vary in outfit, skin color, and type. A three-inch-tall doll with a canary-red flat top is paired with what seems to be a female doll with dark skin and a sequined dress. A bright yellow bee-styled doll is next to a human-looking rag-covered doll. Despite each doll’s different costumes and creeds, they all share similar visages — small felt eyes, and no mouths — and body language: their felt arms are extended, as if opening to give a hug. The stance and color are reminiscent of Guatemalan Worry Dolls, and they possess a similar charm and comfort with their simple design. The sheer quantity and precision of the pieces evoke the awe one experiences after viewing a large collection of Origami: “How did she make all those tiny pieces?”