Thursday, July 2, 2009

james casebere floods miniatures


james casebere's work appeals to me on many levels. firstly, i'm fascinated by dollhouses and miniature settings, they creep me out much in the same way furniture stores do; they are assembled to represent a space that is lived in and neither ever truly are. the effect for me is often ghostly and lonely feeling. 
secondly, i'm obsessed with the apocalypse & am often paranoid that these may indeed be the end times. these pieces have that apocalyptic element of doom in their abandoned, flooded landscapes, which although a trick on the eye, are actually miniature models mimicking familiar architectural structures. 
the strongest chord this work struck for me is the idea that they may be metaphors for emotional landscapes; drawing out historical and fictional histories (alice in wonderland, titanic, katrina, noah's arch) that are then coupled with our current states of national fear & helplessness about just nearly everything.
xoxo

1 comment :

Leila Marvel said...

Wow his images are so surreal, I can't believe they are miniature. I am also truly interested in the end of the world and revelations, over the past six months I have been working on my Black 13 collection, piece of jewelry that are symbols for the apocalypse. I have one that I am working on featuring the four horsemen. I am thinking of revealing it in Dec.