After he graduated from art school, Chris Millar (previously) worked in a toy store for seven years. “The shop, now defunct, was called Livingstone and Cavell Extraordinary Toys in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,” he tells Colossal. The store carried classics like tin wind-ups, electric trains, dolls, miniature soldiers, and teddy bears.
Millar’s latest extravagantly detailed work was one-and-a-half years in the making and takes inspiration from the joys of toy shops and flea markets. He incorporates resin, acrylic paint, brass, steel, aluminum, electronics, and wood into elaborate kinetic spectacles. Every part of is made from scratch with the exception of a few gears.
“Mirthful Miscellanea” channels an imaginary, fantastical curio shop run by two brothers named Wade and Snyder. “Their portraits can be seen in a few areas of the sculpture,” Millar says. “Wade is an expert in medieval musical instruments and roast chicken, and Snyder in antiquarian circus paraphernalia.”
The piece follows in the footsteps of a work titled “Eclipse at Arc Valley” that incorporates a clockwork mechanism, but this new sculpture further elaborates on the design with a more complex mechanism and a base that emits sound from a music box, two gongs, and six bells.
Millar expresses a fondness for mom-and-pop shops and quirky destinations that have found it increasingly difficult to continue operating in our era of online global commerce. The inspiration for the sculpture “is a counter to the homogeneity that our internet-based culture bestows on us,” he says.
The artist is represented by TrepanierBaer, and you can wander more miniature imaginary worlds on the artist’s website.
