The world just got even smaller

Some find  the world too "big," and a group of five artists is working to bring it down to scale.

Small Worlds, an exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art, offers a unique and genuine insight into the worlds of these artists.

Before reaching the door of the Canaday Gallery, I was greeted by a large archway composed of shipping crates, tree branches and other odds and ends. This didn't seem significant at first, but it proved to be part of George Euclide's "Take It With You — Toledo," a site-specific piece stretching throughout both floors of the museum.

This initial exposure draws  the audience into the rest of the exhibit.

Euclide's pieces continues through the entrance and covered the walls. Most of his works consist of natural elements, such as moss and blades of grass, fused with typical art components such as canvas and paint.

One of his more popular pieces, "Capture #9," looked surprisingly realistic, using the pieces of nature to create a miniature stream and forest.

Just around the corner lay the reminiscent and slightly unsettling collection of Charles Kanwischer. All of Kanwischer's pieces, done in graphite pencil, depict the houses and streets of a neighborhood one might remember from childhood.

 The sketches may seem peaceful on the surface, but the abandoned-looking scenes have a rather creepy undertone.

It was a refreshing change of pace to view Joe Fig's work, whose miniature houses drew my attention and admiration instantly.

Fig's pieces were intricate and detailed; it was impossible not to gape at them. A couple of the works were model artist studios, complete with a polymer clay artist working in the studio to perfect the scene.

The pieces were enclosed in order to see the entire picture - I had to circle them while looking into the small windows and open doorways to take it all in. Every detail was considered, including CDs for a stereo and the tools on a garage wall.

The time and effort put into each piece was obvious and it made the scenes realistic and fascinating.

Lori Nix and her vibrant, post-apocalyptic prints were next. At first, her works appear as simple as digitally altered photographs, but they were remarkably complex.

Each piece is originally a painstakingly intricate diorama Nix constructs, after which she photographs and makes chromogenic prints of. This allows viewers to see every detail on a larger scale, rather than looking at the miniatures through a magnifying glass.

Every one of Nix's works depict a scene from a typical human setting, such as a library or a museum, abandoned after the apocalypse and overrun by plants or other creatures. The haunting desolation of each piece made me wonder what happened to bring the world to the depicted ruins.

As if the eeriness of Nix's lost world wasn't enough, the final part of the exhibit is a single piece, created by Japanese artist Tabaimo.

This piece, separated in another room from the rest of the exhibit, is entitled "danDAN" and consists of a video installation loop playing on a unique, three-paneled screen. Eerie music played in the background, setting the mood of the strange, almost disturbing pictures on the screen. Constantly changing and moving, the work combines both modern and traditional Japanese artwork, creating tension in the piece and in the audience.

As these artists show, the world doesn't have to be so "big," and the smaller world might be just a bit more interesting.

Try to make the time to see Small Worlds; there's no better way to spend an afternoon than losing yourself in another world.

The Small Worlds exhibit runs at the Toledo Museum of Art through March 25, 2012 and admission is free.  

— Caitlin Arthurs is a freshman majoring in English.