Gubu Dolls: A Saga Made Out of Art

Gubu Man is an enigmatic, and anonymous, Irish artist who has created a unique and macabre art installation, Gubu Dolls, that is a complete novel made out of sculptures and physical objects. A sensitivity to LED light excluded him from the digital realm and many daily activities that many of us take for granted. His compulsion to create has resulted in an art exhibition that has a complete narrative, multi-dimensional characters, and an intricate lore with philosophical undertones.

The Lore of Gubu Man

When I asked about his childhood and art’s place in it, he revealed that he wasn’t an artist in the strict sense, but there were hints that he was a creative soul. Saying “I wasn’t specifically making art as a child. Like, in Ireland, you had to draw. But in hindsight I was doing a lot of creative stuff, like painting toy soldiers.”

He continues, “I was more drawn to storytelling and theatre. My background, academically, is about 7 years in ideas and narrative creation. English was one of my majors. I also studied history, with a specific interest in Celtic civilisations, and philosophy”.

Unfortunately, Gubu Man developed a debilitating sensitivity to LED light. Individuals that suffer from this condition report having fairly mild symptoms, like eye strain, blurred vision, and discomfort. However, in more severe cases, like Gubu Man’s, people have reported symptoms similar to concussive injury and migraines.

When these severe symptoms began, his life completely changed. Nowadays, most digital devices, including smartphones, use LED displays. This light sensitivity forced Gubu Man to retreat from both the outside world and the digital world where many of us escape to in our free time.

He recalls how difficult it was for him to adapt to this, saying “It initially hit me about 11 years ago, and it was really, really bad at the time. I could hardly leave the house. And I hardly left the house for about five years, and I just, I just had to stay home.”

Over time, the condition has gotten slightly better and he has adapted to it by taking precautionary measures, like wearing a hat and sunglasses and at times completely closing his eyes when in the presence of lighting that triggered the symptoms.

I couldn’t see his eyes through the sunglasses he wore, but he admitted that he had to keep his eyes closed through portions of the interview. I realised that the glow of the screen of my phone, that I was using to record the interview, was enough to cause him major discomfort.

I was surprised at how upbeat and accepting he was of a condition that is so profoundly life altering.

His circumstances preclude him from participating or escaping into the digital realm that so many do today. While most of society was transfixed by the glow that emanated from their smartphone screens, mindlessly scrolling for their next short lived dopamine hit, Gubu Man was compelled to create something of his own.

He spoke of how this experience influenced his creative direction, saying “I was driven by a need to make things, a tactile, visceral need to make things with my hands. Lots of people with neurological issues, we have that need to make things, like music or whatever.”

He continues, “I thought, I know nothing about art. I don’t know what the cool kids were making in New York six months ago. I can’t use the internet to find out. So I’ll make things.”

“I had ideas for a novel and I wanted to put it into something, then I thought, ‘I can make a novel out of physical objects,’ Which is where you are now. You are now in a novel made out of physical objects, using outsider aesthetics so then I can get away with not having great art skills because that’s not needed for the idea. I can still deliver the idea, I don’t need to be Michelangelo.”

He spoke about how he translates his own experiences into his creations. Saying “I trained as an actor. As an actor you want to give a ‘real’ performance.  With method acting, you want to give some kind of reality here or give something of yourself.”

“Say your character’s dog died, you have to act like it’s your dog that died. You have to put real emotion into it. So for this (The Gubu Saga), I got into character as an outsider artist, and made the things that he would make.”

“I draw a lot on my own experience, but I kind of pour that into it, into a stew, and it comes out the other side. So it’s not an exact replication of what I’ve experienced, what I’m putting I’m trying to put genuine emotions into what I’m doing, even though it’s in the clothes of sci fi and horror.”

He began creating his first few Gubu Dolls 8 years ago, and they soon caught the eye of Giovanni, the owner of GalleryX, a gallery that focuses on exhibiting alternative art that is sensual, macabre,  unsettling, and other material that isn’t normally displayed in mainstream galleries.

Gubu Man’s Gubu Dolls eventually became a permanent fixture in the offbeat gallery, with 20 square metres dedicated to the collection that contains around 600 dolls preserved in jars. These jars are arranged in a progression of 60 diorama type sections, forming a readable story for those that enter the room.

When asked about his reasoning for remaining anonymous, he says “I can’t function online. If I meet someone in person, I’ll give them my real name, so we chat as people, but I’m not on the internet, so I’m not part of all that, and so I can’t engage with anyone on it. It’s really It’s torturous to not be part of that.”

He continues, “So I instead decided that I’ll use a pseudonym for the art. The art is Gubu Dolls and Gubu Dolls are online. My family and friends have put their photos and all of that on Instagram. So it means that somebody else can answer for me.”

His inability to engage with others online about his art and speak about his art himself motivated this decision.

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The Gubu Saga

The 20 square metres of floor space is deceiving as this novel made from physical objects is a saga with a fully fleshed out narrative, characters, a complex lore, and themes which pose philosophical questions about spirituality, emergence, and technological dependency.

The exhibit is a shrine, a collection of physical objects put together by The Narrator, a fictional character. He has built the shrine to commemorate and tell the story of his people.

This shrine is a collection of 600 dolls preserved in jars, and each panel arranged in a progression of 60 diorama type sections, forming a readable story for the “reader”.

The dolls themselves are almost Tim Burton-esque, reminiscent of the characters in his smash hit animations, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. They are essentially sculptures, created from clay, baubles, and other found materials.

The saga deals with themes such as spirituality, with a focus on emergence, which questions the creation of society, religion, and the organisms that inhabit the world.

It also explores themes which I would describe as cyberpunk, as the dystopian universe and its creative forces are heavily influenced by technology.

The primary motif are the heads, a feature that is inspired by ancient Irish literature. Gubu Man explains this, “I draw very deeply from sort of Celtic literature, and Irish, ancient Irish literature. The head was a prominent feature in early Irish literature.”

“We have something called the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, which is The Book of conquest, and that’s the Irish Old Testament. Basically. The monks kind of crafted together this or ancient Irish folklore into a kind of an Old Testament, an acceptable Christian kind of Old Testament for the Irish.”

“They wrote about headhunting. They wrote stories of ancient Ireland that had lots of headhunting. These pagans were cutting each others’ heads off and fighting chariot battles and all sorts of things. It probably didn’t happen to the extent they were saying. But that imagery is there, so I draw heavily from that.”

One of The Gubu Saga’s primary characters, The Head-Hunter, was created with this inspiration in mind.

The Witch, another main character, is the matriarch of her tribe, and the wife of The Head-Hunter. Witches are also written about in ancient Irish folklore, being symbols of rebellion against hierarchical systems of oppression.

The Witch and The Head-Hunter are the ancestors of the Gubu Dolls displayed on the shelves.

The Crow, another main character that is inspired by mythology, is an ancient and wise being that built a nest in The Axis Mundi, the tree of the world.

The saga has elements of horror and fantasy that draw inspiration from popular films and literature, such as H.P Lovecraft. In the interview, he mentioned his admiration of Lovecraft, authors, and artists that were adept at crafting worlds that immerse the reader or viewer into their worlds.

“Big, big fan Lovecraft. I love how somebody like Lovecraft made his own world. You read a Lovecraft, like “At the Mountains of Madness” or something, and you’re straight into its own world.”

He continues, “Or Francis Bacon’s paintings. It’s like you’re in his head. That little window gives the impression that you’re looking into somebody’s head, and you’re probably projecting a lot of your own stuff into that, but you really feel that you’re in a different reality.”

The dolls in jars are one of 3 categories of beings that inhabit this universe: The Sea Creatures, Those Who Suffer For Future, and Children of the Future.

The 60 different diorama sections showcase these 3 categories of beings and their evolution. Their evolution is depicted by the different materials used by Gubu Man in their creation. On the first few panels, primitive materials, such as wood and twigs are used, while later panels include materials like metal.

The Axis Mundi is a prominent feature in the saga. In the exhibition, an alcove, of about 4 square metres, is dedicated to a constructed tree. Its branches are entangled with a wire (The Technium). This tree, The Axis Mundi, is the tree of life. The tree is a symbol that features in various mythologies of other cultures. It’s a symbol of life and evolution.

The sculpture itself is constructed of real branches and wiring entangling them with fragments of real circuit boards.

The Axis Mundi presents the “reader” with an open ended philosophical quandary about the impact of technology on nature and life in general.

Gubu Man explains it as, “We’re living in an extraordinary time. It’s a symbol of technology and its engagement with nature. Technology is becoming so powerful that it could be strangling nature, maybe. So the tree is a symbol of that question.“

He continues, “It’s asking, is technology straining the tree of life? Or is technology a new branch of the tree of life? Is technology a natural thing? Are the technologies that we are building, like AI, are they going to destroy nature? Or is it just a new part of nature?”

The saga itself provides commentary about the direction of modern society and technological advancements, such as the Internet and people immersing themselves deeper into this digital realm.

In the saga, The New World Mind is a telepathic Internet, a vast network, to which all living beings are connected.  It is the ultimate evolution of The Technium that entangles The Axis Mundi. Certain characters are more connected to The New World Mind than others.

Many of the Gubu Doll sculptures showcase this concept, being connected by copper wiring that connects one doll’s head to another.

This telepathic Internet is an evolutionary force, or “A Big Bang”, a force that cyclically creates and destroys this universe.

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The Gubu Saga – The Narrator’s Tale

For those that wish to dive deeper into the characters and lore of this saga, Gubu Man created a book which contains the full story, along with all the intricacies of this story, titled, The Gubu Saga – The Narrator’s Tale.

The book itself is made up of printed pages of Gubu Man’s handwritten work along with hand drawn illustrations. A physical copy of this book is located by the doorway before you enter the “novel”.

Go “Read” It

For those that wish to see this exhibit/novel, GalleryX is open from 1-5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. The gallery also showcases other offbeat installations for those that enjoy figurative and surrealist pieces that are a departure from conventional art.

If you would like a better understanding of the story before you view the installation, you can visit the Gubu Dolls website for a more detailed description of the Saga and its characters.

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