Collections > Belonging

iObject
iObject
rubber, copper, epoxy, paint, photography, iPhone hardware
12"h x 11"w x 6"d
2020

iObject

I + Object, for example me and my keys, wallet or phone. Common items that I use and rely on on a daily basis. Separate from me but fairly vital as I go throughout my day.

iObject, on June 29, 2007 Apple released the first iPhone. A name that suggests a merging of the individual with the handy device that is the iPhone. For many people it’s the first thing they touch when they wake up in the morning and the last thing before they go to bed, spending hours in between staring at it’s thin screen.

I object, a decade after the introduction of the modern smart phone, death by selfie became a cause of death, surpassing shark attacks by the year 2015. A little over a decade after its inception, much of the planet is using hand held electronic devices. The tool shapes the hand. For better or worse the use of technology and social media shapes and changes us, but it can be hard to see those changes happening when we are consumed by our own image and identity within it.

The bird in this piece is based on a Victorian Riffle bird. The males have spectacular courtship displays to entice the females of the species. But the bird, instead of directly interacting with another bird is absorbed in it’s own image. It’s easy to see this behaviour as ridiculous in another species but what about in our own?