Hidden away in the Queens Museum of Art, tucked away in the beautiful Flushing Park, Queens, is a baffling surprise. In 1961 100 architectural model-makers working under Raymond Lester Associates began to create a miniature panorama of New York City in time for the 1964 World Fair. It was to feature a total of 895,000 structures and, until 1992 would accurately detail every single building in all five boroughs of the city. This work, conceived by Robert Moses, is still on display in the gallery and, as pointed out by the museum leaflet, is 'large and small at the same time.' This idea forms the basis of a new exhibition called 'The Curse of Bigness', featuring several artists including Great Small Works, with its collection of toy theatres.
One of the long-running aspects of Great Small Works' career is its regular Terror As Usual show, first performed in 1991. Conceived as a response to the tone of media news reports, the show features toy theatre characters and elements taken directly from newspapers and the internet - the immense scale of the media transcribed into the miniature scale of toy theatre.
The Great Small Works company appeared at the exhibition opening and performed a musical introduction to toy theatre complete with visual props and a Benjamin Pollock toy theatre. As the band started, with toy piano and accordian, John Bell began his toy theatre sermon, charmingly sung in deadpan tone, educating the gathered audience as to the origins and uses of toy theatre and willing everyone to join in with the chorus, accompanied by hand gestures "This is toy theatre, it has an arch, it's miniature, it's made out of paper, it is flat, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnd you can do it yourself." A simple song with simple sentiment. Just like toy theatre. Which is, I suppose, why I rather like it.
"It's made out of paper, it is flat"...as demonstrated by the company.
A rousing finale featuring a knight, a nasty dragon and a very distressed chick.
