Faith Bradford (1880–1970) created The Doll House and its accommodating miniatures first as a girl, and then as an adult and collector. She imagined the 23-room dwelling (scale: one inch to one foot) as a turn-of-the century household run by Mr. and Mrs. Peter Doll, their ten children, two visiting grandparents, five servants, and twenty pets. Bradford presented The Doll House as a gift to the U.S. National Museum in 1951. Since moving to DC, I have been eager to view the house in real time, and I finally had a chance to visit the (now) Smithsonian National Museum of American Art last week. With high expectations, I was sadly discouraged by the placement of the house in the museum. The magnificent project was barely viewable, placed in a dimly lit corner on the third floor landing. Of course I still spent ample time peering into the little-huge house and imagining Faith's narrative while constructing my own. But, I was frustrated, so I made my way to the Hirshhorn to see yet another miniature world; Hans Op de Beeck's Staging Silence, 2009.
Staging Silence is about time. Miniature time. The museum describes it as part "sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video animated film, and short story". The film is a rich exercise in transformation and in how we perceive. Miniature set-up scenes are slowly altered to change, by lighting effects and the intrusion of human hands that move around the elements of handmade scenery. The movement and editing is paced well, so the switching of one object to another quickly transforms the scene from the real to the surreal. According to the artist, it's "both ridiculous and serious, like the eclectic mix of pictures in people's minds." As each scenario unfolded, I was brought into a realm of association. For me, some of the most meaningful scenes conjured the area of an airport waiting area, to a military hospital, a winter forest, the aftermath of an office birthday party, a palace slowly broken down to a dilapidated embassy or maybe a former hiding post. Staging Silence is my favorite work of 2011, so I went to see it again yesterday.
