Canadian artist TALWST is exhibiting his miniature dioramas at the Art Gallery of Mississauga in Ontario Canada. The gallery describes his work as "miniature dioramas (that) insert marginalize narratives from contemporary culture into the Western Art canon, creating prototypes for a responsive diversified and inclusive history." See his box dioramas at booooooom.com as well as the AGM's artist profile for further information.
I thought his work is interesting because it was in direct
contrast to the "bad art" box that I made for class and has some
direct correlations to the abyssal theory readings that Sarah has shared with
me.
His work calls to light historical events that surround social issues of
racism and oppression, events that present-day Western culture would rather
forget, or sweep under the rug. This is a classic example of present day
abyssal thinking theory where anything that is unwanted or culturally
unpleasant to deal with is minimize, marginalized, and ultimately made
invisible by the dominant cultural media and its cultural leaders.
Constructed from ornate jewelry boxes filled with
hand-painted meticulously crafted scenes these pieces take on the role of
artifact or cultural fetish in the way that they contain a history and story
that can be closed and put away both physically and symbolically but also
opened and revealed and put on display in a gallery or museum to provoke
thought and conversations on the topics they address.
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