Yes,
such a thing exists! The "artworks" (many disagree in
calling it artwork, see link at bottom of page) has been created by
Kelly Heaton. The wall peice consists of 400 Furbys, stripped of
their skin and put on a wooden wall. The Furbys were not just any
kind of Furby, all 400 of them were Santa Furbys, apparently so all
Furbys looked the same. There are 14 art pieces all together that
include Furby as the subject in some way.
The finished piece is
now on display at Bitforms in New York City for a limited time.
The Furbys begin to talk when an IR signal is bounced off a viewer back
to them, so as the viewer walks in front of the display, the Furbys in
front of the viewer will begin to talk and as the viewer walks along,
more will begin talking.
Furbys were chosen by
the artist not because she is anti-furby, but because Furbys are a well
known emblem of machine intelligence, which made them sutible for this
project and the artist also wanted a reciprocal relationship between the
viewer and the display.
My friend Blu visited
Bitforms to view the display and was able to take pics of the display,
which are featured below. Writing in italics is by Blu her self.
Click a pic to view bigger version of it!
For more discussion of the
controversy regarding this show and other Furby controversies, visit Custom
Visions: Altered Toys and click on the "Controversial Altered
Toys" link. Also, thanks to Canuck for imforming us of the
show! The gallery's website can be found here.
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This is a
shot of the major piece in the installation called:
"The Pool". Its a very strange ,but fascinating
experience to be standing in front of this slightly
curved smooth wall, with furby faces embedded
in it.The wall, which DOES remind one of a pool
because of the water molecule form of the furby face
elements (2 eyes plus mouth=H2O), reflects your movements
..furby faces are activated and talk as you pass
in front of them.They are activated by infared reflection
off viewers bodies. This installation wall is
being offered for $33,000. I asked the gallery
owner about the fact that the pixels will all
eventualy fail, rendering the wall silent and static
over time.He said the buyer would be given a video
of the wall as it was when functional. |
These pics show the
back of the wall, you can see the customizations done to the
circuits of the Furbys in the close up (bottom pic) |
Next I show
the items in the second room of the gallery.
You will notice that furby is treated here almost
as a biological specimen..with its
various parts dissected and diagramed
and set among images of animal dissection
illustrations. First (top pic) is a
piece called "Pinned Anatomy"..all the pieces
of furby laid out and pinned to a board. Next (bottom pic) are the
dissection sketches from the back wall of the
second room..animals such as rabbit ..and furby.
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This piece
(top pic) I'm pretty sure was not shown in the gallery
website..its called "Where am I?" and is selling
for $3,500. Here is the text that was on
the wall above it, bottom pic. I had a hard time reading it
clearly, but think i got it all.
Text:
I peered through the glass.There, floating in what looked
like ginger ale,was my brain,though it was almost
covered with printed circuit chips,plastic tubules,electronics(?..a
bit unclear) and other paraphernalia.I
thought to myself: "Well, here I am staring
throught a plate glass at my own brain..But wait"
I said to myself,"shouldn't I have thought,"Here
I am suspended in a bubbling fluid,being stared at
by my own eyes?" |
These
last 3 pics (top, right and below) are various drawings of Furby
on display at Bitforms. |
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