Devastating Loves & Transcendent Hatreds : Priscilla Otani : The Obsessive Demon  

The Obsessive Demon
Doll parts, fabric, yarn, paper, shell buttons
15.5 x 3.25 x 7.5 inches, 2023
$495.00

My blood pressure medications have a significant leveling effect on my emotions. Physical changes such as gray hair, swollen knees, and diminishing energy have also rendered me invisible in public settings. I welcome these changes as my magic cloak against unwanted attention and drama. This doll is created in a likeness of myself to devour obsessive desires of love and hate. When used properly, it heals the owner of irrational feelings toward others and wards off unwanted advances by undesirable strangers. When used carelessly, it can turn the owner into an Obsessive Demon, whose hunger for love can never be satisfied and whose incendiary hate can never be extinguished.

Priscilla Otani is Board President of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA), founding partner of Arc Studios & Gallery, in San Francisco, art curator and interdisciplinary artist. Founded in 1973, NCWCA has an activist mission in support of women in the arts. As partner of Arc Studios & Gallery, Priscilla has focused on showcasing and promoting emerging and established artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a curator, Priscilla has produced local, national and international exhibitions through Arc Gallery, NCWCA, National Women’s Caucus for Art, and the Pacific Center for the Book Arts. As an interdisciplinary artist, she has participated in many activist-themed exhibitions, ranging in subject matter from immigration, reproductive rights, women’s rights, to politics. Otani received her BA in Psychology and Asian Studies from Mills College in 1974 and her MA in Japanese Literature from Columbia University, in 1976. Born in Tokyo, Otani is a bicultural, naturalized United States citizen.