Structures and sculptures that are tiny in scale are engaging: dioramas, miniatures, dollhouses, models, snow globes, terrariums ... I think it's because of the range of responses they can create in the observer: on one hand, they can draw you in to a new miniature parallel world ... on the other, they can make you feel like an outside entity: completely removed and all-perceiving.
Take the miniature dramatic art of Lori Nix,
Jonah Samson's (Dark and Dirty) Dioramas,
and the amazing works of Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz. They include tiny islands:
... and snow globes:
When the sculptures / structures also have a tactile component, there is an added bonus of being able to engage both your senses of sight and touch. For example, it's hard to see a snow globe without wanting to pick it up and shake it, or look at this "Room Box" of a bake shop and candy store and not want to hold one of the tiny cakes:
A closer look:
In a lot of ways, the miniature arts are limited only by the imagination.
Make the world's smallest orange,
a terrarium in a mini Tabasco bottle,
a castle inside a lightbulb diorama,
... or decorate your ceiling with a parallel world, like artist Ji Lee: "People decorate their walls and floors, but most of them overlook their ceilings. It's such a waste of vast space. So I started to install miniature parallel worlds on the ceilings."
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