Erin Dengerink's installation "The Hole in Your Heart is a Portal to Another Dimension" is a mixed media installation of small, whimsical arrangements comprising a surreal landscape that delivers a message of hope to the heartbroken.

That's what the description on the Artscapes website says. To me it is a delightful little confection consisting of two dioramas in adjacent display cases that are fun to look at. I guess that could be interpreted as "a message of hope to the heartbroken."

The dioramas are made from tin cans of various sizes stripped of their labels and painting with white paint. To be more accurate, the paint appears to have been dipped in and poured upon, and allowed to drip and puddle in fascinating ways on and around these stacked tin cans. They look like frosted wedding cakes stacked in layers of descending sizes, but the figures on top do not look anything like traditional bride-and-groom cake toppings. They are tiny figurines of people, and most of them have been combined with similar little models of animals, all coated with the same white paint.

Read Alec Clayton's full review of "The Hole in Your Heart is a Portal to Another Dimension" in the Music & Culture section.

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