BRAD LEI


Designer | Artist

zlei@risd.edu








  



Transpositional Dioramas






You are visiting two dioramas that float in the middle of emptiness. They respectively feature the exterior and interior view of the same bay window.

This whale shuttles you back and forth between two dioramas.

After each run, it goes inside the dioramas and looks at you from behind the glass.







Exterior Diorama:

This is a bay window copied from the Carr House at RISD, a Queen Anne style house built at 1885. During the period, whales had been the powering source of modern civilizations. The majority of them had been hunted for whale products. The fractional surviving species are still struggling not to extinct.







Interior Diorama:

This is the inside of the Carr House bay window. It is a library decorated with whale products:

1. a corset made with whale baleen,
2. an umbrella made from whalebone,
3. a pipe made from whalebone,
4. a candle and lipstick made from whale oil,
5. a doll whale.












Now, what do you see? The window, yes. And a collection of whale products that are burning.

Whales had been the powering source of modern civilization for hundreds of years. The fractional surviving species are still struggling not to extinct.

This particular whale shuttles you between the two dioramas. Then it goes to the backside and looks at you from behind the glass.














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