fuckyeahdioramas:

newyorker:

From the Photo Booth blog:

Lori Nix is chief architect and urban planner of her own little ghost town, founded in 2005 and known as The City. The City has a library, a botanic garden, a church, a bar, and even a laundromat—almost everything a proper metropolis needs, except for people. Nix’s highly detailed dioramas are meticulously crafted by hand, out of foam, wood, paper, plastic, and found materials, but they show a world in decay, where nature is once again taking over.

Once a room is built (which takes up to seven months), Nix takes photographs of her imagined post-human future with a machine from the past: an 8 x 10 film camera. Though the scenes are apocalyptic, they nonetheless evince a sense of whimsy and wonder; even if humans have left the building, life still flourishes.

“The City” is on view at ClampArt until December 18th, when it will travel to the Catherine Edelman Gallery, in Chicago (January 7th to February 26th, 2011). Here’s a selection, with Nix’s comments.

View the full slide show.

Glad to see the Newyorker getting hip to dioramas!