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 daily. 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 its thin screen.

I object, a decade after the introduction of the modern smartphone, 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 handheld 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 Rifle 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 its own image. It’s easy to see this behavior as ridiculous in another species, but what about in our own?