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Thomas Doyle's marvelous diorama art

David Pescovitz at 9:49 am Tue, Apr 14, 2009

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Thomas Doyle creates mind-bogglingly beautiful dioramas with exquisite detail. These pieces just ooze mood and wonder. Doyle is profiled in the next issue of Hi-Fructose, previewed here. From his artist statement:
 Images Acceptablelosses Acceptable 1 My work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller. Often sealed under glass, the works depict the remnants of things past–whether major, transformational experiences, or the quieter moments that resonate loudly throughout a life. In much the way the mind recalls events through the fog of time, the works distort reality through a warped and dreamlike lens.

The pieces’ radically reduced scales evoke feelings of omnipotence–as well as the visceral sensation of unbidden memory recall. Hovering above the glass, the viewer approaches these worlds as an all-seeing eye, looking down upon landscapes that dwarf and threaten the figures within.

Conversely, the private intensity of moments rendered in such a small scale draws the viewer in, allowing for the intimacy one might feel peering into a museum display case or dollhouse. Though surrounded by chaos, hazard, and longing, the figures’ faces betray little emotion, inviting viewers to lose themselves in these crucibles–and in the jumble of feelings and memories they elicit.

The glass itself contains and compresses the world within it, seeming to suspend time itself–with all its accompanying anguish, fear, and bliss. By sealing the works in this fashion, I hope to distill the debris of human experience down to single, fragile moments. Like blackboxes bobbing in the flotsam, these works wait for discovery, each an indelible record of human memory.
Thomas Doyle's Dioramas (Thanks, Miss Heather Sparks!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • http://themodelmaker.net Anonymous

    Thank you for showing me this artist. His work is very inspiring and it fits to my area of interests. I love miniatures, looking and making them. I am happy to see that it may be considered art!

  • Anonymous

    Incredible!!! I love it!

  • Anonymous

    The house on the edge of a cliff reminds me of some etchings by an artist called Leon Pericles…he explored similar imagery.

  • Anonymous

    If you like these pieces, the artists Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz have pictures of a series of (O scale I think) sculptures contained within snowglobes with a similar aesthetic and content at http://www.martin-munoz.com/recent/index.html.

  • tsteele999

    Link isn’t working for me. Mirror?

  • bzkrt

    Those are not dioramas, it’s tilt shift!
    I can tell by the pixels

  • Toby

    We appear to have crushed his server. I did find a few nice large photos elsewhere.

  • Anonymous

    I absolutely LOVE Thomas Doyle’s art!!
    It’s just sooo inspiring!! It just makes me feel relieved..You know?
    By, Tammy

  • Anonymous

    gorgeous, i love this art!!!

  • Anonymous

    How do you buy Doyle’s art or which auction would I go to in order to purchase his stuff? Anyone know? Thanks.

    Eddie

  • Anonymous

    Is this the same guy that does the dioramas from the CSI:Las Vegas?