Until recent decades the most disappointing aspect of miniaturism was the figures. What you got offered were either stiffly moulded, anachronistic plastic figures or generic, mass produced porcelain dolls with bland expressions. It always seemed a shame to me that, after spending endless hours (and possibly a lot of money) building and furnishing a house to perfection you were let down by its potential occupants. Perhaps that is why my own doll's house has remained unfurnished and unpopulated until now. Nowadays, if you have sufficient funds, you can purchase incredibly detailed and realistic-looking figures made by professional miniaturists - but even these do not satisfy me!
As an artist I am not interested in Pretty - I don't even want human. For the past few years I have been developing my own private visual lexicon based on myth and folklore, and the creatures I most often return to are the Hare and the Crow. I can't even explain fully what each of them represents; it's certainly not as simplistic as Hare = female and Crow = male - although that is how things often arrange themselves.
I think the hare, being associated with the moon and with wisdom, represents a shape-shifting, quicksilver energy that you run after but can never quite catch, like trying to remember a dream clearly when you wake up. The crow, on the other hand, has a grounded, uncompromising spirit: when Crow is talking, you had better listen...
Since the first lockdown in 2020 I have been experimenting with making miniature sculptures and dioramas, designed to be displayed under glass like Victorian taxidermy. This one is approximately 13 cm high in total.
This one - even smaller - is shown next to a 5 pence piece for scale
To populate an entire doll's house requires work on a more ambitious scale. So far I have sculpted the heads and limbs for six figures - these pictures represent many weeks of work. My intention is to create a dreamlike, slightly off-kilter atmosphere. Each room will represent a self-contained story designed to tease and unsettle the viewer.
