Small World: Dioramas in Contemporary Art

by Hugh Davies, Toby Kamps, Ralph Rugoff (Editor)

With essays by Toby Kamps and Ralph Rugoff, Small World: Dioramas in Contemporary Art features work by a younger generation of artists inspired by natural history museum displays, film sets, miniatures, and a wide variety of other sources that present full- or small-scale models of real or imaginary landscapes and scenes. Working in two and three dimensions to create simulated environments frozen for our inspection, the represented artists include Michael Ashkin, Helen Cohen, Mat Collishaw, Liz Craft, Thomas Demand, Mark Dion, Bridget and Tina Marrin, Tony Matelli, Nils Norman, Alexis Rockman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Clara Williams. Small World deals with a number of the most provocative subjects in recent art, particularly a widespread interest in social structures, the landscape, and scientific ideas and methods. The diorama -- from the Greek dia, through, and horama, to see -- can serve as a powerful medium for artists who want to consider the ways we see and understand the world.

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Hugh Davies was born in Pembrokeshire but now lives in Derbyshire. He's had a career specialising mainly in computing. He was the Winner of British Computer Society Innovation award for his invention of the Passfaces authentication system. He is now retired and spends his days working as guide at Bletchley Park where he started 12 years ago. In his spare time, he gives talks nationwide to a wide range of audiences speaking on WW2 Intelligence topics especially the human factor.

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but more of a pamphlet to accompany the exhibits, hence the lower star rating.