Kid Zoom: Home
March 22, 2012 2:29 PM   Subscribe

'HOME' an exhibition by Ian 'Kid Zoom' Strange In October 2011, after three years living in New York, artist Ian Strange [Kid Zoom] returned to Australia to create a major new installation work housed in Cockatoo Island's prestigious Turbine Hall. The exhibition featured a full-scale reproduction of his childhood home and a film documenting the violent destruction of three Holden commodores. This video documents what resulted.
posted by Freen (15 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wonder if I'd take all of this seriously if he didn't call himself Kid Zoom.
posted by cmoj at 2:41 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


Since people will ask, apparently the Holden Commodore is an automobile of some sort.
posted by hyperizer at 2:54 PM on March 22, 2012


PERFECT!
posted by obscurator at 2:58 PM on March 22, 2012


I liked that. Encapsulates the undercurrent of violence that I feel in some parts of Melbourne and Adelaide.
posted by awfurby at 3:02 PM on March 22, 2012


MJ did it better I think, but that house is cool.
posted by nutate at 3:36 PM on March 22, 2012


Is this the part where someone comes in and grumbles about "money for the arts" and that it could be better spent on homeless/education/housing/better health care?
posted by greenhornet at 5:01 PM on March 22, 2012


Meanwhile, way back in May 2011 in Rotterdam, Elmgreen and Dragset (of Prada Marfa fame) staged the installation "The One and the Many" in a decommissioned submarine factory, featuring a full-size recreation of a multi-story council building, a Ferris wheel and a man taking apart an old skool white limousine by hand.

Wonder if Kid Zoom went. For inspiration.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:06 PM on March 22, 2012


Well it didn't look like he destroyed them all, just busted a couple of head and tail lights, kicked off a mirror and burned one. The initial fireball was pretty sweet. So was the part when he was spraying the burning car with spray paint and then boom! Adolescent flame-thrower. He could have worked a little harder at the destruction. It doesn't even look like he broke a sweat swinging that sledge.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 6:45 PM on March 22, 2012


Cockatoo Island's prestigious Turbine Hall

This may be one of my favorite phrases ever spotted on the Blue. Thanks for this FPP; I don't often (i.e., ever) think about the Australian installation art scene, and though this didn't rock my world I love that there was a context that made this happen.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:42 PM on March 22, 2012


I admit it: this is the kind of stuff that makes me feel stupid. I feel like there's supposed to be some big point to it that I'm not getting but everybody else is. :(
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 7:44 PM on March 22, 2012


Well, it's not just you, because I don't get it either. As for the 'violent destruction of three Holden commodores', well, I've seen cars in better condition still being driven on the road. I'd also be very surprised if his childhood home had a huge skull painted on one wall. But maybe it's just me (well, and you) not being smart enough to understand.
posted by dg at 12:00 AM on March 23, 2012


Of course, I meant '...in worse condition being driven...'. Which proves my point about not-smart.
posted by dg at 12:02 AM on March 23, 2012


The descriptions of this piece could be considered a case of art bollocks.

That said I thought it bordered on interesting - touching on the dark underbelly of suburbia.
posted by ephemerae at 8:00 AM on March 23, 2012


It's just under done. If the house had been packed with tiny details, which was clearly the point given the shots of the twist of wire and the very specific faucet attachment and so forth, then maybe. But as it is, he had the idea, but didn't have the memories or the imagination to make up details that might have made it interesting. And the cars seem just to show how edgy he is. And I still can't get over the fact that he calls himself Kid Zoom.

This is what fully half of male second year art students would do given a pile of money to do an installation. 75% of these same students would not go on to finish art school.
posted by cmoj at 11:22 AM on March 23, 2012


That's exactly it, cmoj--there isn't enough information here to get whatever point he's trying to make. I'm sure it's super-meaningful to him, but it's just a couple of unconnected clues to me. And the whole smashing windows in slo-mo thing feels like it's just in there 'cause it's COOL MAN.

Okay, I feel slightly less stupid now. Not that I'm necessarily not, but you get what I mean.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 1:29 PM on March 26, 2012


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