Amber Hawk Swanson

Hawk Swanson has been a part of the silicone doll community since 2005 after acknowledging her then failed attempts to date “organic” women and developing an affinity with “doll husbands” who consider dolls (termed “synthetics” in the community) to be life partners. In 2006, she commissioned the fabrication of Amber Doll, a silicone doll made in the artist’s likeness who became her artistic and romantic companion for five years. In Amber Doll > TILIKUM (2011), the artist transmogrified Amber Doll into a replica of Tilikum, a bull orca then living in captivity at SeaWorld Orlando who had been involved in three human deaths. Twelve pounds of silicone flesh, foam, and joints were all that was left of Amber Doll's original form after TILIKUM was sculpted.