Barbie girls

Fashioning children into miniature adults is a tried-and-tested device in the Arts. Charles Dickens did it in Oliver Twist. Alan Parker did it in Bugsy Malone. And now the photographic duo Rene & Radka has done it too. Their super-stylized, technicolour images - mostly for magazine advertising campaigns - enact every little girl's favourite pastime: raiding the dressing-up box and playing grown-ups. So, trussed up like Barbie dolls, the pocket-sized models star as newsreaders, weather girls, chat show hosts and secretaries. Thankfully, though, the absurdity and incongruity of their characters, plus the over-egged retro styling, gives these pictures just enough satirical humour to preserve their innocence.