Other People, Other Lives

Enterprise Reporting from The Outsider Art Fair

An Extensive Series of Miniature Sculptures Explores the Dramas of Quasi-Alternate Realities

by John Otrompke

“What would it be like if all of us lost our housing all once? I mean everybody- what would that look like?” 

A sculpture series by self-taught Toronto-based artist Jordan Maclachlan tries to answer that question, mixing horrifying scenes like a man being attached by a pack of domesticated-breed dogs with scenes of survivors who have no choice but to become stronger by the experience.

“But there are also just normal moments, too, like somebody reading a book,

getting a haircut, or somebody knitting,” said Maclachlan, who was interviewed by phone for this article. 

The series of miniatures, called “Unexpected Subway Living,” currently numbers about 100 sculptures, 80 of which were on display at last month’s Outside Art Fair in New York. 

“Then there are moments where people are needing privacy, but not getting privacy, and it’s just all right there. Like there’s a woman giving birth leaning against  a subway chair, and she’s got a raccoon walking across the back of the chair,” said Maclachlan. “And I have a small surgery area in my series, where a girl is getting heart surgery, and a guy is getting brain surgery.”

However, while many of the scenes in the series are set in subway cars, the trains don’t move. “They’re all ruined. They’re all just sitting there,” explained Maclachlan, who began the series some seven years ago.

                                        Alternatives and Antecedents

Maclachlan never attended art school, but has also loved dioramas. “Since I was a little kid, I was fascinated with them, such as French terra cotta models from the 16th and 17th century at the New York Met. 

“None of them are fired, and sometimes they are really engaging, sometimes horrifying, and sometimes not. Sometimes a bar scene, or a husband and wife fighting over a baby,” she explained.

The artist also has other installations in progress, including a series called ‘Condo Living’ and another called ‘Zoo Living.’

“They’re all about how to live, and living in different ways. ‘Condo Living’ is much more civilized. There’s a party in a living room, where people are playing cards, and people are drinking champagne. The condo also has some things that are not so civilized going on behind closed doors, and private moments we get to peek at. There are balconies where people can jump off them, or throw garbage off of them and spy from them.

“And in ‘Zoo Living,’ I wonder what it would be like living in a zoo. There are a

lot of human-animal interactions. Then we get into circuses, and there’s a bearded lady. Baby elephants are taken and wrapped in ropes and chains, and some of them break their legs. There are animals in cages that are depressed. Then they have these huge cryobanks, so they can revive a species that might be endangered,” MacLachlan added.

“I’m a news junkie, more of an observer and reporter than a participant,” she explained. “I like unaffected art that comes from a really sweet place.” 

The series is curated by Marion Harris in New York.