The City by Lori Nix
Upon arrival to the museum, I initially skipped the room with the old cameras because I was more interested to see the actual art. Naturally, I ventured through 700 Nimes Road and the National Parks Exhibit, and though the images were beautiful and intricate, none truly evoked a raw emotion that made me want to learn more and explore. However, when I went into the old camera room, I ran into Laundromat at Night(2008) and was both disturbed and intrigued. As an artist, I've always been somewhat attracted to destruction and chaos due to my innate need to try and fix things, so I was immediately drawn to this image. I thought...What happened here? What does it look like now? and so many more unanswered questions.
After just minimal research, I discovered that the image is not of a real scene, but of a carefully designed and created diorama. The artist, Lori Nix began her work as a photojournalist, but soon realized she was much better at creating than capturing. She grew up in Kansas, where natural disasters were a commonplace, and she was inspired by many disaster films such as Planet of the Apes, Towering Inferno, and Earthquake. After her first series called, Accidentally Kansas, she moved to Brooklyn where she was in awe of the intricate and enormous architecture.
So began her creation of The City. She wanted to capture what it would look like if New York City were suddenly destroyed and void of human life. She created every one of the dioramas in this series in her living room in Brooklyn with her partner, Kathleen. The duo worked well together because Lori typically came up with the idea, the color scheme, and what would be inside the diorama, as well as make the items out of foam. Kathleen was a trained glass artist and would create intricate glass detail, gild items with gold, and make the diorama look aged with dirt after everything was in place. Each one would take about 7 months to make and 2 to 3 weeks to shoot. Though her images often look surreal and edited, Lori refrained from using digital editing softwares and said that she would instead place the camera in one spot and never move it all throughout production. She would play with the lighting and the placement of objects to achieve all of her fantasy-like affects.
In her biology, she says she the purpose in much of her work should "should elicit some form of emotion in the viewer, be it awe, anger, or humor." She plays with the idea of destruction and the apocalypse, but aims to add a touch of humor in each of her compositions, as well as the recapturing of the earth by nature through the vast amounts of flora and fauna in each scene. Another intention of hers is to make each diorama as detailed and real as she can, however; she says that once people realize it is fake, they feel more comfortable with the idea of destruction and have often opened up to her about their own stories of depression and more.
I am grateful I had the opportunity to explore such an amazing museum and home and was extremely enamored with the work of Lori Nix. I look forward to upcoming series such as Unnatural History, which is coming soon.
Works Cited:
http://www.lorinix.net/ :Bibiolgraphy and Q&A sections
Nix, Lori, and Barbara Pollack. The City. 1st ed. Seattle, WA: Decode, 2013. Print.
Bailer, Juli Cho. Fresh: Contemporary Takes on Nature & Allegory. Vol. 1. N.p.: Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, 2006. Print. Context.
