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Changeling - details
This was my entry for GD Australia 2012. This is a diorama that explores the inside of the mind of a poor, terrified young guardsman as he falls under the nightmarish spell of the changeling. I was lucky enough to get bronze with this one in a very strong category. And now, for a little background… The project was born out of so many different ideas. But the major motivation for it came from some major frustrations I had with how the miniature painting community is evolving. The fields is growing and changing beautifully, and there are many painters who are making some conceptually brilliant stuff. However, I’ve noticed that very few painters use any notion of abstraction in their works. All the miniatures that seem to be produced are a literal depiction of an event (normally a battle) taking place in some imaginary universe that consist of people and objects. However, when we look over to the field of ‘proper art’, we see people making pictures of ideas and concepts, and so many other fantastical things presented in a nonlinear manner. So the motivation for this was to produce a diorama that showed an event that wasn’t necessarily real. However, it still needed to be able to be entered in GD, and to please the judges it needed to be a battle scene of some sort. The solution I found was to try and portray the inside of a nightmare. The idea was that the Changeling (from GW’s demons mythology), would be casting his spell on the unfortunate guardsman, and the viewer begins to see the worlds as he does. He sees the ground breaking apart and lifting away, as reality disassembles before his very eyes. He sees his trusted friends and comrades transform into the most hideous of demons and turn on each other. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the brutal and uncaring commissar that he always feared becoming all too eager to punish him for his cowardice. At this point, he suddenly becomes very aware of the fact that he will die alone on a battlefield far from home in a pointless war. And he finally comprehends his insignificant place in the universe in comparison to the omnipotence of the changeling. The other major idea in this diorama was to try and create a work that really utilises the ‘three dimensionality’ of our art form. It’s frustrating to see people basing their mini’s by putting them in front of walls, or making dioramas that only look good from one side. One of the best parts of our art form is that we can pick up and play with our artworks, seeing the model change as you turn it around in your hands, and really being able to get up close and see all of the hidden details in a piece. Miniatures are one of the few mediums in visual art, in which you can actually touch and play with the artworks. We have three dimensions to play with, so it is baffling when people restrict themselves to just two by making flat miniatures. So with this piece, I tried to make it so that it had to be picked up, and played with, to be fully understood. It was supposed to be a real joy to hold in your hands. This involved positioning some characters at the back of the diorama, so that you didn’t get the full story unless you’ve looked at it from all angles. I also tried my best to make the composition interesting from all angles. The idea is that as you turn it around, the shapes are constantly changing into new and dramatic shapes, with jagged angles and sharp geometries to try and mimic the chaos that’s going on inside the guardsman’s head. This approach does have a major downside in that it doesn’t photograph too well unless you take a photo from every angle, and particularly, it doesn’t look good in the cabinet at GD. Regardless, the judges still had a change to play with it, which is what matters. I also got to chat to them afterwards, and they said that they figured out what it was about after a little while. And since then I’ve been getting as many people as possible to pick it up and play with it. Big sources of inspiration for this project were matt cexwish’s return of the warlord diorama, which convinced me that the miniature community was starting to make some out of the box stuff, and really gave me the courage to go ahead with this project. Picster’s visions of hatred was also a big source of inspiration for all the tzeentchian goodness. A lot of ideas also came from the surrealist movement, particularly max Ernst, because of all their ideas about altered realites and dreams. Also, finally there was the 1981 war film Gallipoli, which features a bunch of young, naïve soldiers getting shot on a battlefield in the middle of nowhere for no particularly good reason. If you look closely, you can see that the two guardsmen are modelled on the two main characters played by mel Gibson and mark lee. Finally, a big thanks goes out to my friends mark, weisern and drew for their tireless help and advice. Without you guys this project would have been a gigantic pile of s***t.
Posted: 7 Oct 2012
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