Thomas Doyle’s work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller.

Often sealed under glass, the works depict the remnants of things past—whether major, transformational experiences, or the quieter moments that resonate loudly throughout a life. In much the way the mind recalls events through the fog of time, the works distort reality through a warped and dreamlike lens.

In an exclusive interview with Art Nouveau Magazine, Doyle talks about working in miniatures, the imagery in his work and more.

Art Nouveau Magazine: What made you start working in miniatures?

Thomas Doyle: Like many children, I was interested in action figures, shoebox dioramas, and the like. My mother often took me to museums, where I could stare for hours at the dioramas in the cases. Years later, after finishing up studies in painting and printmaking, I found that I felt limited by those media, and was unsure what to do next. It was then that I decided to do what felt the most natural, and that’s when I began making models, much as I had when I was 11 or 12. In so doing, I ended up back where I started.

ANM: You focus a lot of houses, homes and domestic imagery. Why is that?

TD: The pieces in the Distillation series are about family life, and the memories we have of childhood. For most children, the home is a constant, and it is the stage for all action – all the discovery, fear, joy, and sadness. When we think of places we have an intimate connection with, they are often humanized by our memories, which bestow them with distinct personalities. In the works in the Distillation series, the houses almost become members of the family, in some cases manifesting the household’s climate in ways that would otherwise go unnoticed. I’m thinking particularly of the piece “Displaced persons,” in which a woman blithely approaches a home painted jet-black as a man and child play in the backyard.

ANM: Why do you place your work in glass?

TD: The glass helps to contain the work, and as it does, it seems to stop time and freeze the action within. With the glass removed, the works feel dead and plastic; under glass they feel loaded, as if they as if they are ready to come alive.

ANM: You recently had a sculpture commissioned by The New York Times Magazine as a cover for their June 14th, 2009 issue. How did that opportunity come?

TD: I was contacted by a designer at the New York Times Magazine who was looking for a different approach to illustrating the annual architecture issue. He had seen my piece “Acceptable losses” and the rawness of the earth below the house intrigued him; you can see a direct correlation between that look and feel in “Acceptable losses” and the piece that was ultimately on the cover of the magazine. My work is typically centered on the suburban house or a natural setting, so it was interesting – and very challenging – to create a cityscape.

ANM: Tell me about your Reclamation series?

TD: The Reclamations series deals with the idea of romantic love – in all of its chaos, bliss, and pain. The figures in this series are isolated or reunited, in danger or recently saved. They’re also often in liminal states – which is the way most human relationships evolve and change.

ANM: And your Bearings series?

TD: The Bearings series evokes similar imagery to the Reclamations series, but it focuses on a lone figure, often isolated from others. In many of the works in this series the figure picks his way through a vast landscape, or sits at the brink of disaster.

ANM: What statement if any are you making with your work?

TD: Like most people, I’m interested in figuring out what it means to be human, and the work I’m making is the best way I’ve found to do that. If it shines a little light for other people, then all the better.

ANM: What inspires you?

TD: I read a lot of nonfiction, particularly history. I’m endlessly fascinated with the paradoxes, anecdotes, and narratives of past eras, and that information collects and percolates in my head. I am interested in beauty, absurdity, chance, and contradictions, all of which make their way into my work in some form or another.

ANM: Your work is essentially scenes. They remind me of films. Are you inspired a lot by films?

TD: In a roundabout way, film plays a role in my work. Sealed as they are under glass, the works often depict a frozen moment of time, often giving them the quality of a film still. When viewing the pieces, as you would a snippet of film, there is much left unseen: events preceding and following the scene before you are left to you to envision. This, along with the optical impurities of the glass domes, often leads viewers to make the connection between my work and film. When I began making this body of work years ago, I often thought about it in the context of directing film – the cast, lighting, set, wardrobe, and special effects were all contained right there under each glass dome.

ANM: What’s next for you?

TD: I am at work on a series of sculptures using the same scales but larger and more involved in scope. I spent a month at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire last March when I was able to begin some larger works; I’m seeing where that will take me. Additionally, I will have work on view in April at LeBasse Projects in Culver City, California.

ANM: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

TD: I just bought my first house. I have no idea how that’s going to affect the Distillation series and beyond, but that’s part of the fun of it.

For everything Thomas Doyle click here.

Popularity: 4%