Oh, to quarantine inside a Polly Pocket, safe and enclosed, all the comforts of home sculpted in colorful plastic. Browsing the Instagram account @polly_pick_pocket might be the next best thing. Logan Square–based artist Julia Carusillo works as a set and exhibit designer, creating sets and displays for theaters, nature centers, and aquariums—which gives her a particular appreciation for miniature worlds. On the popular Instagram, she posts soothing ASMR “tours” of Polly Pocket interiors from her collection. Her manicured nails click against the clamshells. The cases open to reveal tiny, interactive worlds inside: an 80s-kitsch surf shack, a pastel fairy cave, a water park with a winding pink slide, a hair salon with a tiny checkerboard floor. The account’s tagline is “I bet you had the same one!”
How do you fit into the wider Polly Pocket social media world?
How do Polly Pockets fit into art history?
My dream job would honestly be to design Polly Pocket worlds. I do embroidery, and I’ve done really complex embroidery of different Polly Pockets. And I guess that seeing the level of detail you can get out of molded plastic has made it clear to me that I can get that level of detail from the things that I make.
One of my favorite details that’s in a couple different compacts are these little marble statues, but they’re done in the style of what the Polly dolls look like. So it’ll be a classical statue but it has the same facial features as one of the dolls. I love that.
