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Feel Big Live Small
organized by Elan Smithee
with an essay by Rachel Nuwer

On view:
March 19 – May 16, 2015

Opening Reception:
Wednesday, March 18: 6-8 pm

Featuring work by:

Matthew Albanese
Dante Brebner
Citizen Brick
Thomas Doyle
Joe Fig
Idan Levin
Kendal Murray
Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber
Serial Cut
Tracey Snelling
Daisy Tainton

Dioramas and miniatures are used in the field of architecture to preview a vision, in cinema to create a fabricated world, and in workshops as a means for children to process traumatic events. There are many uses for small scale representations of our reality, and artists have long adopted model-making in their own explorations. The artworks in this exhibition move beyond a simple recreation of what surrounds us, creating optical illusions and pieces of wonderment that make viewers look twice.

At first glance, miniature views of current social realities may appear like child’s play. But what do dioramas and miniatures reveal about the psychological impact on artists today? Does the process of making something small allow the artist to feel a certain amount of control? Or does the nearly manic time commitment necessary to recreate day-to-day situations in a small scale tell us something else about the psyche of the creator? Feel Big Live Small explores dioramas and miniatures as well as our fascination with all things small, both as a technical feat and a psychological relationship.

Rachel Nuwer has a BA from Loyola University, New Orleans, and MAs from the University of East Anglia, England, and New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Writing Program (SHERP). She writes for The New York Times, Smithsonian, Scientific American, New Scientist, Popular Science, Audubon Magazine, Edible Magazine, and more, and blogs for Smithsonian. She also publishes a column, Last Place on Earth, with BBC Future.