Oldest and Newest Tools of Human Beings
Description:
Shimabuku (Kobe, 1969; lives and works in Naha, Japan) creates performances and installations that investigate – with a light and even humorous gaze – the daily life and the material and immaterial cultures of individuals and human communities, integrating them with the expressive forms of the natural environment and its creatures. In the work Oldest and Newest Tools of Human Beings, the Japanese artist offers a synthesis of human history by simply juxtaposing some prehistoric stone tools – which anticipate those that visitors will encounter in the exhibition path of the Collections – and some contemporary communications devices – such as IPhone and IPad. By establishing a visual link between technologies that we are familiar with and those used by our ancestors, Shimabuku emphasizes their many similarities in size, function and ergonomic form, inviting us to consider them as extensions of our bodies that traverse time and space. The use of vitrines, traditionally used in museum displays, also allows to reflect on the multiple implications that a potential “museum” of our daily lives would have. Located within the millennial artifacts of the Prehistory Collections,
