As the ‘changeover monitor role’ is currently on hold, Merv Keehn has explored his own home gallery collection to consider what he might bequeath to the NGV Design Department for the proposed NGV Contemporary Gallery. Submitted as a CTC, Merv has asked that this be considered his Professional Development task for 2020.
CONTENT
This contemporary artwork, unlike most decorative arts on display, is very tactile and is meant to be touched, which is the best way to appreciate its smooth, functional surface, punctuated with small, regularly patterned holes in the top right hand side, and a number of raised buttons, black on the right hand side with contrasting white symbols, and white buttons with black letters and numbers on the removable handset.
When exhibited, this work can be connected to a power source and to a telephone line[2]. Under supervision by a gallery guide, this work may spontaneously emit sounds, known as a ‘calling tone’ or a ‘ringing tone’, and is thus categorised as an acoustic artwork. If the handset is removed the sounds will stop.[3] Overall, this artwork is visually appealing, with the bonus of being pleasantly tactile and acoustically active.
TECHNIQUE
It had originally been thought that Cordless Telephone had been cast using the lost wax method, but recent research has discounted that idea, as well as the idea of creation by 3D printing. This work is one of a large number of identical works, assembled in a factory in either Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam or Turkmenistan using pressed moulded[4] components and other bits and pieces.
The artists involved in creating this work (apart from the large number of electronic robots) are deliberately anonymous, at the insistence of Uniden Corporation’s intellectual property lawyers. It is difficult to detect much artistic flair in different editions of this work, and detailed examination of the work shows no discernible difference in artistic techniques used by the non-robotic artists during moulding and assembly.
CONTEXT
The success of Japanese modernism between the wars gave Japanese artists confidence that in the 1950s and beyond, they might be able to design and make things more attuned to an international market than tatami mats, sake barrels and chopstick rests. After some hiccups along the way[5], Japanese industry supplied the world with top quality and well designed electronic goods, spawning the likes of Uniden Corporation in 1966, the artistic design workshop responsible for Cordless Telephone and numerous other useful[6] and visually attractive decorative arts.
[1]Acquisition not yet approved by the Council of Trustees
[2] Younger gallery visitors may not be familiar with a ‘telephone line’ which is a 19th Century device for enabling two people to talk to each other when out of earshot, similar to the radio connection between smartphones, but without SMS, MMS or social media.
[3] Guides should be aware that, in its current location, Cordless Telephone only works intermittently, so demonstrating its capabilities in a gallery situation may lead to disappointment.
[4] A glass moulding technique perfected in past millennia.
[5] The 1963 Toyota Tiara ute being one example which did not set the automobile world on fire
[6] See footnote 3 above.
Thank you to Merv, but I imagine the NGV’s response might be: “Don’t call us, we will call you”. I look forward to other guides exploring their own collections and submitting CTCs for consideration.
Dear Mr Kkeen
I humbly submit the following for consideration as a suitable label for your most interesting contribution to contemporary art:
Kheens’ “Uniden Corporation” combines moulded, sculptural forms in polished metal that trend towards generalisation and abstraction, yet, in balance, combine, as they do, detailed concrete elements trending towards a variegated particularisation, the detail of which evokes the connectivity of contemporary life, albeit in a reminiscent technology.
Erich von Streader