of these objects, replicas in bronze,
each is a time marker.
these are all objects that we would pick up, adjust, interact with on a daily basis. their importance to us is imprinted somewhere in our memories as significant. they are, however, the messengers and not the message, the instrument but not the song, the tools and not the work itself.
the radio alarm clock, with a digital readout instead of a clock face, changed forever the fragile state between sleeping and waking, allowing you to wake to your favorite radio station. it also, by replacing the clock face, changed the way we looked at, read, or calculated time.
the polaroid [one shot and sx70] revolutionized photography by providing instant images available to anyone. suddenly you could take a picture of anything.
the diana and holga cameras were the chosen favorites of art school students experimenting with primitive cameras in the increasingly constrained and overly conservative definitions of a burgeoning new medium, art photography.
cassettes provided portable, compact music, altering forever the influence of radio as the individual became their own disc jockey.
the advent of the telephone answering machine meant that telephone calls could be screened, or voice messages retrieved at a later point in time, forever changing the dynamic of communication.
books are rendered invalid for their original intention.
in their original forms these objects are now largely useless to us, or obsolete, however strong bonds to them still exist. hopefully here they provide for us a new perspective on their meaning and place in our lives today, our memories and time markers, how we regard the future, and our collective past.
bronze has a permanence, a fluid but calm and grounded energy that settles and contrasts the velocity of the early 21st century; it is, then, increasingly modern.
_michael stipe