Photo by Rensselaer/Gregg Clapham

The final leg of Rensselaer professor Michael Oatman’s traveling exhibit featuring the work of local makers of dollhouses, model railroads, dioramas, and scale models recently landed in the third floor art gallery at Albany International Airport. Titled Model Citizens: GIANT SIZE, the exhibit includes nearly 200 miniature works created by more than 30 modelers, hobbyists, collectors, and artists.

Meticulously detailed pint-sized men line the exhibit, which features a multitude of miniature models, ranging from an undersized amusement park to a dollhouse undergoing “historic renovations.”

“There is inherently a lot of weirdness and humor in making models,” says Oatman, a clinical professor of architecture at Rensselaer and curator of the show. “I wanted to find out what that was about. Was it escapism, was it to keep busy, was it to be a control freak (creating your own town in your likeness), was it to revisit something you did as a child?”

Oatman’s traveling show, which has already made stops in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont, was part of the Cambridge Arts Council’s Public Art/Moving Site project, which challenged three artists to respond to the unique characteristics of three New England towns, and to present a show that maintained its integrity while responding to each site during a six-week presentation.

Photo by Rensselaer/Gregg Clapham

Oatman used flyers and posters to solicit public participation for the first showing of Model Citizens, which opened in Cambridge, Mass., in April. It has since traveled to New Haven, Conn., and Bellows Falls, Vt., evolving and expanding at each location, as Oatman presents new work from local model makers, in addition to work collected and exhibited during the previous shows.  

A Sept. 15 public reception of Model Citizens: GIANT SIZE is planned at the Albany International Airport from 5 to 8 p.m, and Oatman will be on hand to answer questions about the exhibit.

On Sept. 26, the artist will premiere Model Citizens: A Miniature Epic, a feature-length documentary he filmed that takes viewers inside the places where 25 different modelers — including members of the Rensselaer Model Railroad Club — perfect their craft.

Model Citizens: GIANT SIZE will be on display at the Albany International Airport until Oct. 22.

Published September 4, 2006