The tastemakers over at Moss also have an eye for the miniature. Today, their Daily New feed features Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym’s Buildings of Disaster: Neverland Ranch. They describe the series:
Souvenirs of human tragedy, even violent events, are a part of our object-history. Each year hoards of people visit the battlefield of Gettysburg, as well as the site of the car crash which killed Diana, Princess of Wales. Perhaps we embrace horror so that we may contain it, even feel some sense of control over it.
The bonded nickel piece was designed in 1998 and I remember seeing the series when it came out. I was charmed by the postmodern urge to recontextualize calamity into pop culture consumables. (A limited edition, they sell for $110.00). Viewed through the inescapable lens of 9/11 and Middle Eastern crisis, there’s something so innocent about this piece. Ostensibly the “disaster” is Michael Jackson’s downward spiral, the police raid, baby on balcony, et al. But to pluck a contemporary example from the headlines: Is it possible to imagine a palm-sized Red Mosque? Would it give me a sense of control over the viral expansion of religious and cultural conflicts globally? No, but boy it would be a handy hunk of metal to chuck at the TV.
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