Jo Shin – SHINDIG

In August 2009, Emily Parsons-Lord and I collaborated on a series of sculptures for Extra Cheeese Stage 3 (from the guys that brought you Happenstance Magazine).

The point of the exhibition was for contributors to create something interesting out of ‘retired’ art/design materials. Each pair of contributors had to be one half “emerging artist” and one half “emerging designer”, working together to showcase the exciting ideas the Australian creative scene had on re-use in the industry.

An excerpt from our show’s blurb on ourselves:

Whether as art or design, both our works strive to instigate an intelligent and creative dialogue amongst the audience, regardless of their allegiances to art or design, mediated by clear playful and compelling communication.

Working together, we draw on history, technology and offbeat humour – often with an echo of the visceral for added tang.

In this new day and age where being wireless and portable is key, Em and I focused on e-waste. Unlike any industry prior to it, the world of technology moves at lightning speed. Always changing, dazzling and “conveniencing” us with new shiny gadgets that do everything from thinking for you to have sex with you.

We wanted to take a step back.

We collected an old computer desk, an old wired computer mouse, coffee table & floppy data disks to illustrate the yesteryear of technology that today helps us create. Mounting, pinning and displaying these now “endangered”, if not, extinct items in a traditionally prized context, we wanted to highlight where we’d all recently arrived from.

Make up your own mind on what it’s all about. Below are photos of our effort.

Mounting the desk to the top of the wall was probably the hardest bit!