There is a lure to all things miniature - tiny objects somehow contain our desire. Into these small-scale realities, we project our fantasies and doubts; in their realms, we are simultaneously omnipotent and reverent, filled with wonder but removed.

The five artists featured in this section, Sayumi Yokouchi, Kevin Ford, Dave Marin, Patrick Jacobs, and Rob de Mar create their own such worlds. Scaled down but by no means diminutive, these works hint about the complex relationships between man and nature, commodity and control.

The intricate sculptures of Rob de Mar present whimsical depictions of a fragile system. The re-creation in miniature is an idyllic preservation of an unspoiled world.

Sayumi Yokouchi's portable landscapes elude to nature as a means of escape and meditation, but their bright, unnatural colors reveal how manufactured her creations truly are.

Kevin Ford presents us with an already highly manipulated landscape, the golf course, in miniature scale. Beyond the visual pun, this installation questions man's tendency to subjugate nature for the aesthetics of affluence.

The urban tableaus of Dave Marin are far from idyllic. His choreographed scenes in constructed worlds recreate a moment of crisis from several viewpoints, serving as diagrammatic evidence to an ambiguous narrative.

Patrick Jacobs constructs worlds within walls, filled with the wonder of the mundane. Peeking through the lens, the viewer is confronted with a perfectly recognizable but ultimately inaccessible reality.