All the Small Things
Science, entertainment and art converge in the work of Willard Wigan, a British artist who creates sculptures so tiny, they fit inside the eye of a needle, or on the head of a pin. In fact, you can't even see the sculptures without looking through a microscope. He's created a tiny replica of the Lloyds of London building (on commission), a mini-Moon landing, and placed iconic Hollywood figures like The Incredible Hulk and Homer and Bart Simpson inside the eye of a needle.Wigan, 51, has been making these creations since his teens as solace, since he suffered from dyslexia and therefore struggled in school:
"It began when I was five years old. I started making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live. Then I made them shoes and hats. It was a fantasy world I escaped to where my dyslexia didn't hold me back and my teachers couldn't criticise me. That's now my career as a micro-sculptor began."
It's not easy creating these miniature works of art, when even traffic on the streets outside can make Wigan's hand shake at a crucial moment. He has figured out how to slow his heartbeat and sculpt between pulse beats, and often works through the night when things are quieter outside. Once he accidentally inhaled the entire sculpture. His "brush" might be a single hair from a house fly, or a single shard of diamond attached to a pinhead.
My personal favorite? Wigan's creation of a micro-Oscar statuette (above), neatly tucked inside the eye of a needle. Something so small has never seemed so big.
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1 Comments:
Beyond inventive. Leonardo DaVinci in 2009. This work is so important in a country that values how successful one is in terms of their currency and what college one has graduated from. WW had the real currency, the one of sublime reality. I will never look at all my hair on the floor the same. One of my long strands could build a WW country. One that appreciated wealth without counting. The true wealth of a genius!
And think how big his studio might be. The size of a matchbox?
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