Ztrains: Z Scale As Art

I originally wrote this article for the September/October 2003 issue of Ztrack Magazine. Thanks to Rob Kluz of Ztrack for his permission to reprint it here.

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel

What Is Art?
Can a Z scale train layout can be thought of, and treated as a legitimate work of art? Is a train layout intrinsically less artistic than any other three dimensional art work? Z scale layouts possess elements of kinetic art, architectural art, sculpture and of works in miniature. Does a train layout lack the depth and meaning of these other generally accepted classic and contemporary art forms?

Currently the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has such diverse pieces in their Architecture and Design collection as an Apple iBook, a Motorola cellular phone and a 1952 Jeep.

In the Painting and Sculpture section of MoMA, things get even more interesting. Along with paintings from Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock and Salvador Dalí, there is a kinetic sculpture titled “Bicycle Wheel" (see photo right) by painter, sculptor and author Marcel Duchamp. “Bicycle Wheel” is essentially a bicycle wheel mounted upsidedown on a kitchen stool. It was part of Duchamp’s class of objects he called “Readymades”. These were pieces conceived in large measure to break the conventional art rules of the day in order to allow for a new type of art, or perhaps the idea of a new artistic possibility.

In trying to determine if a train layout can rise to the level of art, perhaps a basic definition of art needs to be established. The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines art as “skill acquired by experience, study, or observation” and “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects”. Certainly a fine train layout would seem to fit this definition, but in many ways, so would the process of making a flower out of a radish for an elegant buffet. So a straight textbook definition seems to fall a little short in defining art, or maybe the radish flower really is art.

Many preeminent philosophers and authors have made public their opinions on what art actually is, perhaps they could lend some insight into a workable definition. I discovered several quotes that resonated with me, and in my mind can apply directly to the concept of a train layout as a work of art.

What is Art?

Leo Tolstoy
Art, in our society, has been so perverted that not only has bad art come to be considered good, but even the very perception of what art really is has been lost. In order to be able to speak about the art of our society, it is, therefore, first of all necessary to distinguish art from counterfeit art.

There is one indubitable indication distinguishing real art from its counterfeit, namely, the infectiousness of art. If a man, without exercising effort and without altering his standpoint on reading, hearing, or seeing another man's work, experiences a mental condition which unites him with that man and with other people who also partake of that work of art, then the object evoking that condition is a work of art. And however poetical, realistic, effectful, or interesting a work may be, it is not a work of art if it does not evoke that feeling.

Aristotle
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

John Updike
What art offers is space, a certain breathing room for the spirit.

Marcel Proust
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments. An artist re-creates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature.

I genuinely like and tend to agree with all of these thoughts, but the Marcel Proust quote seemed particularly interesting to me as it applied directly to the type of train layouts that I gravitate towards. I've always been fascinated with railroads that feature a single track line cutting through a geographic area that just doesn't seem to want it there, for lack of a better phrase. The Klondike Gold Rush trains, the Trans Siberian Railway, the early rails that crossed the prairies and mountains of the post Civil War United States. When I see railroads like these I'm struck by the sharp contrast of truly inhospitable locations, and man's attempt to tame those environments. Only by man's desire to expand his political, geographic and financial boundaries were railroads such as these built, perhaps it's this desire for expansion that I see as the “fundamental view of man's nature” which Proust described.

Would a train layout that represents man's desire for growth be any less a work of art than say, Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Can work? Are Warhol's thirty two paintings of Campbell Soup Cans an insightful look into the obsessions of Americans, are they a celebration of the American spirit, or are they part inside joke, part cleverly crafted profit center?

John Cubbin, Platform

But Is Z Scale Art?
After doing my research for this article, I think I'd place train layouts loosely in the diorama family. Dioramas date back thousands of years in the form of miniature wooden models found in Egyptian tombs. These models would often depict elements of the Egyptian environment and culture. A basic contemporary definition of a diorama is a three dimensional miniature scene in which objects are arranged in simulated environments.

Environments that are hyperrealistic or absolute fantasy have been created in Z scale with great success. Perhaps the best known Z scale piece is Chris Burden's “Pizza City” (featured in the July/August 1998 issue of Ztrack) which was exhibited at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art for their 1997 Biennial Exhibition. Michael Ashkin is another contemporary artist who has incorporated Z scale models in his work to great effect, creating landscapes that depict the result of man's interaction with his environment, both urban and rural.

Do you have to be a recognized artist to create art? The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California recently published a book titled “Small World, Dioramas in Contemporary Art” that features a portion of the Tehachapi Pass area of California created by a California model railroad club. The fact that these club members aren't artists by trade didn't stop this museum from acknowledging their model railroad achievement.

So, is that Z scale layout you're currently building in your basement, or that briefcase layout you can take to work actually art? Even if you're not you're looking to have your layout displayed in a museum, it certainly is an interesting question. In the final analysis perhaps whether or not a Z scale layout can be considered art is up to the individual museum, gallery, patron of the arts and the buyers of these pieces. If the world has yet to universally decide on the validity and quality of selected works by Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, maybe its not so bad if the world has yet to decide if a Z scale train layout can be considered a true, legitimate work of art.

July 7, 2008

Making Styrene Look Old

Styrene in both strip and sheet form is used extensively in model railroading as it is very predictable to work with.

Now learn one technique for making your styrene look like real aged wood. This tutorial is a keeper!

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