The Drum's design project of the week: Feel Big Live Small exhibition
In this week’s design project of the week The Drum takes a look at the Feel Big Live Small exhibition at New York’s apexart gallery in TriBeCa.
New York may be known for its towering skyline and behemothic squares but in one corner of the city things are getting decidedly smaller this month.
The Feel Big Live Small at the apexart gallery opened this week featuring a collection of meticulously crafted miniature dioramas creating optical illusions to make the viewers look twice.
At first glance, miniature views of current social realities may appear like child’s play but the exhibition aims to explore dioramas and miniatures as well as our fascination with all things small, both as a technical feat and a psychological relationship.
Dioramas and miniatures are normally 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.
Feel Big Live Small features work by Matthew Albanese, Alice Bartlett and Joe Fig, all of which bring a range of perspective to the exhibition.
Matthew Albanese, Dark Zone, 2014
For example Albanese discovers the eerie depth of a cave in Dark Zone, while Fig gives viewers an inside peek into his personal working space in his Self Portrait diorama.
Bartlett takes an altogether more playful approach covering her fingernails with model train grass complete with tiny people gathering next to an equally tiny tree.
Joe Fig, Self Portrait: Collinsville, 2013
Alice Bartlett, nail art, 2012
