Trainscapes

This is a little far from NJ to go for a museum exhibit, but it looks surprisingly worthwhile. Trainscape: Installation Art for Model Railroads is an art exhibit at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. The museum website has a great video.

The use of a miniature railroad enables DeCordova Museum to effectively present twelve separate works of contemporary installation art in a limited space, and to allow these works to be considered both separately and in juxtaposition. The miniature is also the perceptual cousin to the colossal. Tiny objects and images demand close examination, so that they fill one’s optical field in much the same way as very large visual phenomena. This close looking at small things allows for deep mental immersion as well. Trainscape thus provides enveloping journeys to cities, mountains, deserts, technological landscapes, and places of pure imagination.