the wilhelmine project

The Jem Collective: The Last Supper

Dolls? Really? And what are these dolls?

I grew up in Wisconsin and I have the classic city-adult story: Wisconsin was wonderful, love that I grew up there, but I always felt a bit out of place and that there was a different world out there that I needed to be a part of. 

So it’s 1985/1986 and I’m six years old, right in the height of Barbie playing phase. Barbies were fine. They were fine. But I don’t remember being all about the Barbies. 

Then, a miracle happened. Jem.

Hasbro decided to release a series of dolls, a cartoon and songs that were based on punk culture. The premise was that there was two competing all-girl punk bands (Jem & the Holograms vs the Misfits) and the show documented all the chaos that ensued. 

I was totally in love and have been ever since. I felt like there was a place for me, which maybe that makes me shallow to get belonging from toys, but I was six. And there was no internet. So when you’re six and everyone thinks you’re a little weird, it’s nice for other weirdness in the world to come out of nowhere and smack you upside your little head. 

A few months back I started collecting them on eBay just for the hell of it - they made me happy and I figured I’d do something cool with them someday and here I am. 

So why the Last Supper?

It’s iconic. I had spoken to friends about doing a bunch of Jem dioramas, anywhere from the flag on Iowa Jima to the D-Day landing to Rosa Parks sitting on the bus. There’s a really jarring juxtaposition of putting these commercial, frivolous dolls in these major moments in history. 

I’m attracted to this juxtaposition because I feel like so often we culturally reduce these moments into image flashes in our collective consciousness instead of appreciating them for what they meant for history, progress (or lack of progress) and who we are today. 

If someone can look at this Last Supper and think about it fresh or even take a moment and really think about it again because of this, then the window is doing what it should. I realize this might offend people, but if it does, I hope people think about why they’re offended and I hope it makes them value or understand their relationship with the original event that much more, instead of doing what we all seem to do when we see an image of the Last Supper which is usually to be like, “Last Supper. Got it. Next”. 

So is it only for a Christian-based audience?

God no. I feel pretty sure that the Last Supper transcends Christianity, at least in Western culture. I mean, I might offend the Christians the most, but having grown up in a Christian tradition in a big family of church-goers, I don’t think it’s offensive. If anything, I think Christians could probably do the world a favor, stop getting offended, calm down, go help some people and have a laugh.