Tool-things : The Making of an Apprentice
An IAMD Thesis exhibition by MFA candidate Michael Simon.
Reception: Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 6-10PM
Website Location
Ignite Gallery, 165 Augusta Ave, Toronto
Tool-things represents the beginning of an apprentice’s toolkit, one that can be read as evolving in parallel to the knowledge gained through its making. This work taps into the human connection to tools by focusing on some of the most familiar ones: the hammer, screwdriver, clamp, and handsaw. Most of these Tool-things have been meticulously crafted to be almost indistinguishable from the everyday objects they sit alongside, and both are seen in an unexpected light. Paused during a process of metamorphosis, somewhere between the familiar and alien, they encourage us to question what comes first: the knowledge, or the tool? Potentially sparking frustration in their apparent uselessness, Tool-things ask us to look a little longer–it could just be that we don't yet recognize their use.
“We shape our tools thereafter our tools shape us.” John M. Culkin
Website Location
Ignite Gallery, 165 Augusta Ave, Toronto
Tool-things represents the beginning of an apprentice’s toolkit, one that can be read as evolving in parallel to the knowledge gained through its making. This work taps into the human connection to tools by focusing on some of the most familiar ones: the hammer, screwdriver, clamp, and handsaw. Most of these Tool-things have been meticulously crafted to be almost indistinguishable from the everyday objects they sit alongside, and both are seen in an unexpected light. Paused during a process of metamorphosis, somewhere between the familiar and alien, they encourage us to question what comes first: the knowledge, or the tool? Potentially sparking frustration in their apparent uselessness, Tool-things ask us to look a little longer–it could just be that we don't yet recognize their use.
“We shape our tools thereafter our tools shape us.” John M. Culkin
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