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Possibly my favorite exhibit (and I’m not one to use that term loosely) in the several art fairs I visited this past weekend was Japanese artist Sohei Nishino’s amazingly intricate and simply spectacular Diorama Maps at Pulse. This ongoing series currently consists of thirteen cities from all over the world that Nishino visited. The artist walks around on foot shooting with film from various locations, taking thousands of photos and cutting up the multitude into small pieces then piecing the enormous mounds together by hand. The Diorama Maps are almost a bird’s eye view of each city, emphasizing key elements that follow the artist’s memory and perception more than a precise map. The results are truly breathtaking. These small images don’t do them justice. Definitely worth clicking on the images for a larger view or looking at the cropped, close-up images. They remind me of David Hockney’s photo collages, yet at a more massive—in their elaboration rather than size— and detailed level, but I did have a similar reaction the first time I saw Hockney’s collages.