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LORI NIXUnnatUral History

2013 SAFOTO Web Galleries Monograph • Lori Nix

LORI NIX

Lori Nix was born in Norton, Kansas, in the rural Midwestern United States, where not much happens except extreme changes in weather. She holds advanced degrees in ceramics and photography. She has been building and photographing fake landscapes and complex dioramas in her Brooklyn apartment for over a decade. Her work has garnered grants, and a dedicated cult following among young photographers. She has exhibited at ClampArt Gallery in New York City, the George Eastman House, Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, the California Museum of Photography, and the G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle. Her work was also featured in the diorama exhibition Otherworldly at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. UnnatUral History

Unnatural History examines the framework of the Natural History Museum dioramas and their intentions. The dioramas are designed to entertain as well as educate by displaying animals and situations from nature that are not normally accessible to the average person. The depths of the ocean, mountain tops, and animals in the midst of the hunt are all on view with great attention to the details of each scene. My reinterpretation of these dioramas, the basic idea remains the same but the details are askew. The photographs present a behind the scenes look at how the dioramas are created, but getting all the facts right is not my concern. The secrets that are revealed are often wrong. The mastodon is papier mâché, the angler fish is not self-illuminating but instead requires a jump start from a battery, and pre-historic spiders once rivaled humans in scale. The black and white photographs are presented formally, as if they are purely documentation, and with enough detail to provide the illusion of truth. Upon closer inspection, you realize that things aren’t quite what they seem at first glance. They play on the expectations we have for museums as places of serious research and authority. They are close, but not quite, and these discrepancies add to the fun.

Lori Nix [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.lorinix.net

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Angler Fish

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Mastodon

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Praying Mantis

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Dodo

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North American Beaver

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Olympic Forest

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Jurassic Spider

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Galapagos Turtle

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Lions & Tigers

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Rabbits

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Snow Maker

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Great Plains

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Sharks

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T-Rex

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Skunks

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Rocks

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Spider Moth

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