Artist transforms old ring boxes into detailed historical dioramas

Toronto-based artist Talwst, using unexpected but effective media, has created fascinating series of miniature historic dioramas inside of vintage ring boxes. The dioramas depict a wide assemblage of scenes from various historical periods.

According to Talwst, the idea of this miniature theatres was born when a street vendor in Paris handed him an old ring box and said, “I want to see you do something with this.”

Talwst turned the antique ring box into a seaside scene featuring a woman in a black, vintage swimsuit, and the idea was born “I want the viewer to open the box and feel they have been transported to another world,” he says.  There are a lot of different themed worlds in his ring boxes, varying from science fiction TV show trough global warming awareness,  an ode to famous painters to historical reenactments. Every ring box present a unique, inspiring  and painstakingly detailed story.

“The work’s small scale allows me the opportunity for a very particular kind of meditation,” he says. “The overarching theme is related to time and space; to my sense of the vastness and the fragility of the world which I inhabit; and my fleeting memories of this world.”

‘This is inspired by a roommate who was obsessed with conspiracy theorist David Icke, who believes that the Rockefellers and Rothschilds are extraterrestrials. I don’t subscribe to Icke’s theories.’ ‘In this work I wanted to play the role of court jester, like Banksy or Maurizio Cattelan, in a surrealist comedy piece poking fun at Dutch landscapes.’ This is a piece about climate change.’ It’s entitled Summer in the Winter This is the first ring box I made: a Venus-type scene of my girlfriend at the time emerging from the waters.’

This is an ode to Edouard Manet, one of my favourite painters. It’s a take on his 1864 painting La Muerte del Torero.’

To see more of his awesome ring boxes check out his official site talwst.com  or you can  find him on | Facebook |  Instagram | Twitter All photos by   talwst.com

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