Dissonant Dioramas

When not working as a graphic designer, I started making my own eerie assemblage art. For the last few years I assembled arrangements–first making freestanding “fake voodoo” objects, which later led to assembling dioramas.  Thinking inside the box, I scavenge desk drawers and wooden boxes to house semi-abstract landscapes. I work with pieces of rusted metal, fabric, discarded machine parts, broken toys, twigs and bones. Backgrounds are painted canvas, opaque or translucent layers of resin-infused paper.  The outer boxes are clad in epoxy-infused canvas, paper and layers of sand,  grit and /or plant material. Recent pieces have non-reflecting museum glass in front.

I light the dioramas with LEDs to contrast the dark mystery of rusted worlds with bright, colorful, background skies. LEDs in these pieces stay cool and draw less energy than a common incandescent night light.

I celebrate broken, lonely landscapes:  abandoned brownfields, power lines, smokestacks, rusted bridges and industrial ruins. I want to evoke aliveness amid urban decay and disquiet. Lately I have been doing a lot of swamps. Nature fights back in industrial lowlands. I often sneak in reptiles, sci-fi and horror elements amid the ruins.

I’ve always been attracted to sealed worlds inside dollhouses and museum dioramas. The surreal sculpture of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray inspire me, as do the boxes of Joseph Cornell. Other influences: Industrial-precisionist paintings by Charles Sheeler and American painters of the 40s and the WPA era. I also love the mystical expressionism of Charles Burchfield. My biggest inspiration: movie sets of Tim Burton, B movies, black humor in all forms, and especially the films of David Lynch, including his new 2018 Twin Peaks.

-Trish Happel