The miniature worlds of the 38 contemporary artists featured in Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities transport the viewer into fantastical lands, surreal spaces, and secret environments, challenging our sense of what is real and what is fabricated. On view at the Museum of Arts and Design from June 7 through September 18, 2011, Otherworldly features artists who are reviving and expanding the diorama as a medium for contemporary art through site-specific installation, video, photography, and even snow globes. Fifteen of the featured photographers will reveal both their hand-built dioramas and resulting photographic images—displayed separately throughout the galleries.
Organized by Chief Curator David McFadden, Otherworldly explores the varied approaches to the diorama, featuring artists from around the globe who create dioramas as free-standing sculptures, subjects for photographs, and the basis for animated videos. Each of the tiny built worlds are realized through an intense engagement with a diverse set of materials and a meticulous attention to detail that allows for the production of elaborate environments that are at once familiar and foreign. Otherworldly includes works by well-known figures such as Charles Simonds, who is creating an installation in MAD’s lobby, Charles Matton, and Joe Fig, as well as new site-specific installations by Thomas Doyle, Gregory Euclide, and David Opdyke.
“The astonishing and intricate visual effects of the art in Otherworldly both invites and disarms the viewer, pulling one deeper into a fantastical and miniature world,” said Holly Hotchner, the museum’s Nanette L. Laitman Director. “The exhibition has opened up a new arena ofexploration that the museum has long been fascinated by—photography—furthering MAD’s deep commitment to eroding arbitrary distinctions between artistic disciplines. Otherworldly is the first time the museum has so fully embraced the field as a new means of creating connections between art, design, craft, and visual imaging.”
The artists showcased in Otherworldly are connected by their dedication to traditional low- tech and hand-made processes. None of the photographic images included in the exhibition have been digitally altered or manipulated. Instead, the featured photographers construct small locales, both mythic and actual, which they then photograph using manual camera and lighting equipment. For many of them, including Matthew Albanese, Lori Nix, and Frank Kunert, the exhibition will be the first time their built models are displayed for the public. Focusing specifically on dioramas and installations as works of art, the exhibition excludes dollhouses, theatrical sets, maquettes, and architectural models.
“In a social and artistic environment in which digital programming and cyberworlds are embedded in almost every aspect of our day to day activity, these artists are taking the bold step to reengage with the tangible and going back to the roots of artistic practice,” said McFadden. “They are creating magical worlds that, whether depicting floating landscapes, haunting interiors, or abandoned rooms, are all about place, emotion, memory, and vision—both perceived and created.”
The works in the exhibition are loosely organized around four themes that provide a narrative thread for the diverse subject matters. “Apocalyptic Archaeology” introduces viewers to architectural monuments and interiors, frequently in ruin, as a means of exploring deterioration and decay. “Unnatural Nature” explores our fascination with simulating lands both real and purely imaginary. Works pertaining to “Dreams and Memories” question the nature and meaning of recalled experiences, and hidden, secretive spaces and unspoken narratives are examined in “Voyeur/Provocateurs.”
