Description
This horizontally oriented box is constructed with the side panels angled inward, creating a trapezoidal internal space. There is a window on the top of the box allowing natural light to illuminate the interior. The back wall is a black-and-white photo of a set of early twentieth-century apothecary shelves packed with patent medicine bottles. Cut into the middle of this photo is a recess lined with light blue felt and divided into an upper and lower section. In the lower section is a vial containing an ink pen nib. In the upper section is a vial containing leg bones from a miniature toy skeleton. The left inside panel is an etching illustration of a woman with an early exercise machine constructed of ropes and pulleys. The right inside panel is an etching illustration of a man lying under a blanket beside a fire in an open prairie during heavy rain. The caption of this illustration is where this assemblage gets its title—Leaving the Weak to Die.
The centerpiece of this assemblage is a gathering of six plastic toy figures. In the back left is a black horse, and opposite it is a fireman. In the center is a red-and-white clown figure holding aloft a juggling pin, while directly to his right, a green army figure holds a pistol up to the clown’s face. In the forward stage area are two army figurines, each in the same pose on one knee with the other leg extended forward. They face each other, holding the opposite ends of a boot lace as if in a tug-of-war. Hanging from the middle of the boot lace is a trinket of a gold basketball. Each soldier is mounted on top of his own domino. The floor of this box is a black-and-white photo of an old wooden bridge from the perspective of the near end, with the bridge vanishing into the distance. The outside of the box is collaged with text from a pulp fiction story. A black-and-white photo is collaged onto either side. On the left is a kiwi, and on the right is a man in full armor mounted on a horse. The back of this piece is a black-and-white photo of the bottom half of a woman in an armchair. The box rests upon feet made from yellow parallelogram blocks.
Thoughts
While the term diorama makes for convenient shorthand when trying to describe my work to a stranger, I truly don’t like using that term. For me, a diorama is a specific style of enclosed assemblage most commonly seen in natural history museums to depict ancient or prehistoric times in a setting. Most of these museums will also depict wildlife scenes with taxidermic animals as the central figures. I have loved these dioramas since childhood, and I admire the specialized craft that goes into constructing them. There are artists, such as Charles Simonds, who use the diorama form as the basis for new artworks. But for me, a diorama has a specific use, which is why I don’t consider my boxed assemblages to be dioramas.
Leaving the Weak to Die was, at its conception, never meant to be a diorama, but in this rare event, I obviously harken to that style, if only for the form factor. It is a diorama in the sense that I’ve created an environment that basically consists of a stage with a cast of figures arranged in such a way that they appear posed for the scene. I seem to always have subconscious influences, and here it could very well be Sergei Parajanov’s film The Color of Pomegranates, whose experimental nature could be described as mostly a series of live-action assemblages. In any event, my piece came about organically, assembling the images and objects with an eye to what feels right, no differently from how I usually work.
