Story and event photos by Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
“Toys and food — everybody gets that,” says longtime WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli of his photographic series featuring food and tiny human figurines. It’s making a splash worldwide and here at home, as an exhibition titled “Big Appetites” opened at a downtown gallery.
Christopher’s show at Winston Wachter Fine Art began with an artist reception last night. Inspired by media depictions of tiny people, from “Gulliver’s Travels” to “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” he’s been playing with the imagery concept for the past few years, but it’s only in the past few months that their popularity has “exploded” — especially internationally, since a first wave of European interest last spring.
“The ‘tiny things’ fascination crosses cultures,” says Christopher. “There’s a God-like feeling that comes from playing with small toys. The size disparity draws people into a different world.” Christopher’s photos will soon be showing in galleries in London, Brazil, and Monaco.
Despite the international appeal, the theme of many of the images is all-American. The over-scale food items are meant to represent the over-consumption prevalent in American culture, and the figurines reflect the tradition of labor that built our society’s infrastructure. To convey the image’s message, each piece has a title and a caption. The title conveys the humor naturally expressed by the whimsical pairing of oversized food and tiny figures, while the caption reinforces and creates a story around the theme of the image.
The two photos Christopher is standing next to in the top photo in this story are his latest creations, including this one:
It shows a crawfish being wrangled by the tiny figures and is titled: “Exotic Pet.” Its caption reads: “Once again, ownership of an exotic pet was proving to be nothing but trouble.” The lower photo shows figures of workers seated on the top edges of upright rigatoni pasta noodles and is titled, “Pasta Pipefitters.” “They were the tightest clique in the factory,” the caption explains, “and Harvey was the equivalent of the most popular cheerleader.”
Many of the images result directly from West Seattle influences: A particularly appealing piece of produce from the West Seattle Farmers Market or a batch of colorful macaroons from Bakery Nouveau have given Christopher both the props and the ideas for some of the creations. All of the backgrounds are from Christopher’s home, and as much as possible, he uses available natural light to create the image’s atmosphere.
As for the figurines: “Most people ask about the figurines,” he says; those come from an undisclosed European source, arriving in their standing, crouched or seated positions. Christopher occasionally repaints them to fit the color scheme, but they are otherwise generally unchanged.
The hardest part about creating these compositions – besides not eating the macarons? “Spending hours getting everything set up, and while I’m working on the camera focus, a figure falls over.”
Christopher’s photographs will be showing at Winston Wachter (203 Dexter Avenue N.) through February 23 and are being sold through the Gallery. Note-card-sized reproductions are also available in packs of 10 here in West Seattle at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) or (in case you’re reading this from off-peninsula) at the Seattle Art Museum store downtown and at Velocity in South Lake Union.
P.S. If you can’t make it downtown to see the exhibition, keep an eye out for word of a West Seattle spotlight later this year.
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