Abstracts
Abstract
Miniatures open us up to childhood memories, daydreaming, and nostalgia, but they can also alert us to the dangers and disappointments of our times. Many contemporary artists are utilizing small-scale artworks to represent difficult truths of contemporary American life, such as alienation, disenchantment, precarious housing, and economic insecurity writ large. In this essay, focusing on the artists Michael Paul Smith, Thomas Dolye, and James Casebere, the imaginations that encircle homes, neighborhoods, and small towns are complicated through utopian and dystopian art works that draw attention to past attachments to the future and the need for large changes now.
Résumé
Les miniatures nous ouvrent aux souvenirs d'enfance, à la rêverie et à la nostalgie, mais elles peuvent aussi nous alerter sur les dangers et les déceptions de notre époque. De nombreux artistes contemporains utilisent des oeuvres d'art à petite échelle pour représenter des vérités difficiles de la vie américaine contemporaine, telles que l'aliénation, le désenchantement, le logement précaire et l'insécurité économique au sens large. Dans cet essai, axé sur les artistes Michael Paul Smith, Thomas Dolye et James Casebere, les imaginations qui entourent les maisons, les quartiers et les petites villes sont compliquées par des oeuvres d'art utopiques et dystopiques qui attirent l'attention sur les attachements passés au futur et le besoin pour de grands changements maintenant.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Translated by Maria Jolas, Boston, Beacon Press, 1994.
- Barthes, Roland. The Pleasure of the Text. Translated by Richard Miller, New York, Hill and Wang, 1975.
- Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Translated by Richard Miller. New York, Hill and Wang, 1975.
- Benjamin, Walter. “Berlin Toy Tour II.” Radio Benjamin, edited by Lecia Rosenthal. Translated by Jonathan Lutes, London & Brooklyn, Verso, 2014, pp. 44-49.
- Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. Translated by Howard Eiland & Kevin McLaughlin, Cambridge, MA, Belknap/Harvard UP, 2002.
- Burton, Tim, director. Edward Scissorhands. 20th Century Fox, 1990.
- Davy, Jack and Charlotte Dixon, “What Makes a Miniature?” Worlds in Miniature. London, University College of London Press, 2019, pp. 1-17.
- Ellison, Gail. “Welcome to Elgin Park.” Introduction to Michael Paul Smith, Elgin Park: An Ideal American Town. New York, Prestel, 2011, pp. 6-20.
- Englehardt, Tom. The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation. Amherst, U of Massachusetts Press, 1995.
- Freeman, Lindsey A. “Catastrophic Snow Globes as Oneiric and Mnemonic Gadgets.” Space and Culture, 2016, pp.1-11.
- Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917 – 1919): An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works. Translated by James Stratchley, London, Vintage, 2001, pp. 217-256.
- Genzlinger, Neil. “Michael Paul Smith, 67, Founder of a Beloved Imaginary Town, Dies.” The New York Times. 13 Dec. 2018.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/obituaries/michael-paul-smith-dead.html.
- Luce, Henry. “The American Century.” Life. 17 Feb. 1941, pp. 61-65.
- Mack, John. The Art of Small Things. Cambridge, Harvard UP, 2008.
- Mair, Kimberly. “Transitory Formation and the Education of the Senses.” The Senses in Society, vol. 7, no.1, 2012, pp. 53-71.
- Pasquini, Alice. “The Unchanging World,” art show, January 19 – February 17, 2018, Philobiblon Gallery, Rome, Italy. www.alicepasquini.com/alice-pasquini-solo-show.
- Pendse, Amye. “Crafting Scenes of Iconic America.” Flickr blog. 4 Oct. 2013. http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/10/04/crafting-scenes-of-iconic-americana.
- Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. New York, Perennial Classics, 1999.
- Sloterdijk, Peter. Bubbles, Spheres 1: Microspherology. Translated by Wieland Hoban, Los Angeles, Semiotext(e), 2011.
- Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York, Picador, 2004.
- Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham, Duke UP, 1992.
- Wolfe, Thomas. Of Time and the River. New York, Penguin Modern Classics, 2016.
- Yamazaki, Rima, documentary filmmaker. James Casebere and Landscape with Houses. Video Data Bank, 2011.
- Yourd, Danny, documentary filmmaker. The Man Behind the Mysterious Miniature Town. Animal Media Group, 2015.