Free Edmonton art exhibit explores 'playful perspective' of miniatures

A fun-size art exhibit is inviting Edmontonians to take a big look at the small things in life.

Minutiae, a new art show at the Alberta Craft Council (ACC), features smaller-than-life artworks from 54 Canadian artists and crafters.

Jill Allan of the ACC said taking ordinary objects and making them extraordinarily small is a way to reframe how we look at everyday life. 

"The sort of playful perspective of making tiny things maybe makes it a bit easier for people to think about things differently," Allan said. "It's a more manageable scale."

Miniature artist Stacy Burnett takes her itty-bitty inspiration from the savory and sweet – and often suspicious-looking – jellied salads of the 1960s and 70s.

"I collect old cook books and I just really wanted to create the ones that gave me feelings," Burnett said. "Even though those feelings are revulsion."

Each wearable resin artwork presents a different flavour of coagulation on a 2.5 centimetre-wide pin.Different flavours of jellied salad miniatures from artist Stacy Burnett at the Alberta Craft Council's Minutiae art show on March 17, 2024. (Miriam Valdes-Carletti)

The individual ingredients are made first, and then the diminutive dish is assembled layer by layer much like its lifesize counterpart.

It can take more than 100 hours to make one pin, Burnett said, but she loves how the "beautiful and nightmarish" facsimilie salads capture the true essence of the aspic centerpiece.

"Presented at dinner parties, they themselves would have involved so much minutia in their creation. They would have involved so much work and detail," she added. "Flavour was an afterthought."

The dozens of artists work in a variety of mediums including 3D printing, metal, wood and ceramics. Some offer single items, like tiny textiles and cookware, while others have taken a super scaled-down approach to architecture.

"Some of the artists chose to make miniature settings like a miniature pottery studio, we have a tiny library, we have an alley," Allan said. "We have a miniature to scale replica of St. Martin's Mission School, which is a residential school in Wabasca Desmarais."

The Minutiae exhibit runs at the ACC located on 101 Avenue and 106 Street until June 9, and it's free to attend.

For more information visit the ACC website. 

 With files from CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti