Cliff-Hanger Dioramic Sculptures by Thomas Doyle

Nightmarish Suspense

Thomas Doyle’s miniature dioramas create suspense.  With a cinematic quality, they bring the films of Hitchcock to mind.  They could be anyone’s worst nightmare, and certainly represent our cultural anxieties.

In fact, the June 14th cover of New York Times Magazine features a photograph of Doyle’s work.  It speaks a thousand anxious words about U.S. infrastructure and the plans to modify it.

Under Glass

Doyle’s dioramic sculptures are housed under glass, usually bell jars.  The glass separates, distorts, and seems to freeze time.  Viewers are helpless observers, as they see homey scenes on the verge of horrific disaster. 

View Up Close

The dioramas are filled with detail, meant to be viewed closely.  What at first may seem benign, looks more and more sinister as you zoom in on the details.

Look at the photo to the left.  Notice the dead bodies under the plastic sheet.  (The drape of the thin plastic looks natural, doesn’t it?)  What has happened here?  Like a good movie, the plot could go in many directions.

Doyle Interview

What inspires Doyle?  He says a lot of his work “is really about boiling life down to the moments that define who we are.”  Doyle readily admits that cinema has influenced his work.  Read more about Doyle in an interview by James Read for Don’t Panic, an international publication about art and culture with an emphasis on design and the future of our planet.

Doyle is presently sculpting larger dioramas.  The miniature scale is still the same, but “the works themselves have grown larger, resulting in more fully realised worlds.”

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