Her creative process begins with the composition of a miniature. Lori Nix reconstructs and arranges all the objects set in this microcosm in precise detail. In a next step, photos of the dioramas are developed into landscapes, which are shaped by human influence or show nature as it re-asserts its own sovereignty. In LOST, Nix relinquishes interior spaces characterized by signs of transience and so shifts her focus to the individual’s isolation within an expanse of space. The artist generates this effect of wide-open space with the materiality and colors of her dioramas: stylistic influences to be found include the so-called Hudson River School and German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich.
The months of work spent developing the miniatures are a strong contrast to the seemingly highlighted moment when the force of nature wins back domesticated land. While human existence is overrun by nature in the series THE CITY, LOST opens up a perspective on the way nature seems to take on a life of its own in the decay of man’s cultural artefacts. In this way, the works awaken associations of humanity’s physical impotence when confronted by the radical superiority of natural forces, as outlined by Adorno and Horkheimer in their analysis of the relations between man and nature. The fragmentary nature of these dioramas is precisely what reveals the striking imbalance of power relations between the two opposite poles, original condition and socialization.
Recognition of humanity’s impotence as described, or rather visualized by Lori Nix provides a spur to discussion: this growing awareness of one’s own inadequacy is an incubator of the human will. The debates touched upon here deal with the conservation of nature, social criticism, and a latent overestimation of man’s scope for action.
