Smashed, Crushed and Shot-At Apple Products Get Art Gallery Treatment

Nate Freeman — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:01:47 -0400

Graphic designer Michael Tompert made a mistake that's caused plenty of headaches for parents: he bought his young sons iPods. Naturally, the tots were at each other's neck over one of the damn contraptions and the bickering was such that Tompert grabbed the tiny device and hurled it at the ground. The shattered screen and ominous liquid emitted from the smashed iPod left quite impression — so much so that the father took his impromptu lesson and turned it into art.

This weekend, the Live Worms Gallery in San Francisco will display photographs of the Apple products that Tompert gleefully destroyed, the Los Angeles Times' Culture Monster blog reports.

The result is visceral and striking. The pictures display, among other images, an iPhone 3G that met up with the business end of a handgun, a bunch of iPod Nanos flattened on a train track, and an iPad — seemingly "indestructible" — that needed a sledgehammer and a soldering torch before its interior was sufficiently dismantled.

The Modern Art History 101 student in us would make the inevitable Duchamp comparison — particularly to his Readymades, of a bicycle wheel or a shovel. Others will cry metaphor and call the series of photographs a criticism of our device-obsessed culture.

But perhaps there is another underlying inspiration behind the exhibition. Tompert is a former Apple employee, the article reveals.

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

Observer » Smashed, Crushed and Shot-At Apple Products Get Art Gallery Treatment

Smashed, Crushed and Shot-At Apple Products Get Art Gallery Treatment