ebaybies are selected from abandoned, up-for-auction darlings. Their net value at any given moment is based not only on their physical condition and the near extinction of their type, but also on the current state of the market and the economic conditions of both the seller and potential buyers.

I scour the Internet’s online auction sites for potential ebaybies—dolls, often labeled ‘antique’ whose images are particularly embedded with traces of their history and service to humanity. Each ebaybie is transformed from auction photo to fine art print through a labor intense process involving an interchange of aesthetics, narrative play, concept, and technique.

ebaybies have been rescued from the harsh realities of electronic commerce: commodity, novelty, ownership, capital, collections, and shipping. These small edition, hand printed, original fine art prints are available for adoption into loving homes. Each ebaybie comes with a Certificate of Rescue.

ebaybies transcend the auction block and the price of their heads to levels of adoration only previously imagined. Contrary to Walter Benjamin's theory of “loss of aura” in the age of mechanical reproduction, ebaybies provide a genuine and lasting friendship.

ebaybie 'Certificate of Rescue'

ebaybie adoption counseling at WORKS/San José

 

ebaybies at WORKS/San José

 

ebaybies at Wiseman Gallery

 

ebaybies adoption table


Project Information:
ebaybies are intaglio prints. Group Two includes 30 different ebaybies.

Process:
Potential ebaybie images are downloaded from online auction sites, digitally processed and output to film. The sun is used to burn the image into a photopolymer plate. The artist hand prints each ebaybie using the intaglio printmaking process photogravure. Plate production and printing use eco-friendly techniques and materials.

Edition:
Signed and numbered in an edition of five.
Printed at PreNeo Press, Redwood City, California.

Specifications:
Paper: 10” x 7” Rives BFK. One natural deckle, three torn deckles
Plate: EcoEtch Intaglio Plates, 3” x 4” & 4” x 3”
Ink: Charbonnel Carbone Black

Exhibition History:
The Doll Show
Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont, California
May 2009

Portraits
Vino Locale, Palo Alto, California
September 2008

Wiseman Gallery
Grants Pass, Oregon
September 26 - October 22, 2005

Humanities Center Gallery
California State University, Chico
March 2005
Review by MaryRose Lovegren, Chico News & Review, March 3, 2005

Slippage: Wording the Thought Bubble
WORKS/San José, San José, California
February 5 - March 6, 2004

Interfacing Ideas: Fine Art Meets Technology
Blue Room Gallery, San Francisco, California
August 7 - September 14, 2003.

Contact:
 nw at preneo dot com

ebaybies © Nanette Wylde 2003 - 2004