Diamond Dolls (2021) is a sumptuous artist’s book that originates from a sequence of Hormazd Narielwalla’s highly distinctive paper collages. Thirty six images carry a running motif of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ persona, each of which is defined by elaborate, decorative costuming. Cipher-like, the figures reference the Japanese gender-fluid traditions of kabuki and onnagata, which influenced Bowie in his approach to challenging conventions about sexuality. The book is introduced by John O’Connell, author of Bowie’s Books (2019), who draws parallels between Bowie’s shape-shifting ability to project different personas through dress and make-up and Narielwalla’s exploration of themes that encompass identity, adornment and transformation.
Conceived as a sculptural object in three parts and designed to stand like a series of shoji screens, Diamond Dolls pushes the boundaries of lithographic printing into the territory of an art medium. The original collages are printed front and back to reveal the ‘artifice’ of cutting and pasting involved in their construction, while the foiling of paper edges and details of debossed abstract patterns, gives the opening and arranging of the book a tactile and performative quality. Diamond Dolls has also been acquired by public collections including Yale Center for British Art, USA; Tate, London and Bower Ashton Library Special Collection, Bristol and now The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds through the gift of Richard Sykes and Penny Mason, supporters of the Contempoarray Art Society.
