Old West, 2009 - 2010
These dioramas comment on the historical American West, exploring the phenomena of simulated constructions within stories of the American Indian and the Old West. This venture looks at how history, myth, and culture may very well have co-existed in the Western frontier, and, ironically, how artists’ depictions of this landscape led to its further population.
The events depicted respond to the idea of Manifest Destiny, its significance to society in pursuit of constant expansion, the journeys and the consequences that follow. America’s perception of the West typically confuses truth with myth, and in the end myth usually prevails. As seen on billboards along highways and several spaghetti western films, the American West has been stereotyped where heroic cowboys battle a vanishing race.
In the American West, one can find a collection of John Wayne memorabilia at almost any roadside attraction, spot a wax sculpture of a man wearing a poncho and sombrero or stand in awe of a nativity scene in a museum. We have created an exaggerated perception of what the West imbued.