When I look into the lives of the Lilliputian subjects of Thomas Doyle (HF vol.11), it’s an unsettling, if not wholly uncomfortable situation. For someone who hasn’t seen one in person, the experience seems very akin to the perspective of a masochistic, god-like voyeur.. The analogy is a bit off however, as gods would have the power to help the ones they pity, theoretically. For the viewer of a Doyle work, a ominous, castrated feeling, the realization that you cannot assist, that you cannot help, creates a tension so rife that the artist seemingly must encase his subjects behind glass to prevent any intervention. The empathic nature of Doyle’s work is made all the more stronger by the fact that the viewer can barely make out the details of the victims at hand. Though you can’t see their tears, or hear their occasional scream (perhaps that’s why Doyle surrounds them in glass) and though the situations they’re in defy any sort of tangible realism, you cannot study these subjects without feeling their pain, or at th e very least, marveling at the artist’s steady hand and attention to detail. Thomas Doyle’s Collateral Damage opens April 24th at LeBasse Projects in Culver City. More images of his work below.
“Coming from where we’re going” – mixed media – 24″ x 14″ diameter – 2010
