Created over the course of six months, this 1:10 scale model of a rundown home may be the most creepy and depressing dollhouse ever created, softened somewhat with miniaturized graffiti murals by its maker.
Alice Pasquini is an Italian street artist who, with this model (dubbed The Unchanging World), aimed to capture the mixed reality of passing from childhood to adulthood in a single structure — perhaps deserted by a child, or left behind by an adult.
The dilapidated building seems to be in disrepair, but as its creator learned along the way: making things look broken, cracked and decayed ‘naturally’ requires incredible attention to detail.
The meticulous construction project was carefully planned out in drawings, and the finished product features dripping colors, peeling wallpaper, broken furnishings and other meticulously crafted little touches.
Set to be part of a solo exhibition in Rome, the piece was inspired in part by the “mid-20th century British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott,” reports Jessica Stewart, “whose book Play and Reality, theorizes that play is essential to our well-being as children and adults. He also viewed toys as transitional objects that, for children, are both real and imaginary at the same time.”
The artist considers “playing a serious game,” and observes that kids “move easily between realities that are real and fantasy.” She says she “was interested in that in-between space and its potential—this other dimension that isn’t outside of us or inside of us. This is where real creativity lives.”
