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“For she had eyes and chose me.”
― William Shakespeare, Othello
Although a concept fused from the idea of creating contact between inanimate objects, this series is about the relationship people have these strange models. The collecting of miniature figurines fascinates me. I remember first seeing strange porcelain animals on my grandmothers mantel piece, gazing out into space with their fixed stares.
Today people still avidly collect models, with plastic POP! characters from films, comics and computer games a incredibly popular amongst adults and children. But the older figurines in these photographs have mostly been sidelined to the saccharine shelves of charity shops.
There is something about buying and displaying such objects that comes form the need to express our interests and personality to others but also to provide affirmation for ourselves to the perennial question ‘Who am I?’. There is also a comment perhaps that for all that mankind can be, we now have so much, that we are happy to fritter money on such trinkets only to see them eventually added to the landfill of human consumption.
In the photos though are we being shunned as creators and owners of these models as they meet their own kind, or are have we gone mad and entertained the idea that somehow they have come to life.
Created for Contact The Exhibition at Rhubarb East Gallery, 2010
in.an.imate contact, 2010. Inkjet print on Archival Matt. 40x50cm.