Michael M Simon
Tool-things: The Making of an Apprentice
Tool-things: The Making of an Apprentice represents the beginning of an apprentice’s toolkit, one that can be read as evolving in parallel to the knowledge gained through its making. This work taps into the human connection to tools by focusing on some of the most familiar ones: the hammer, screwdriver, clamp, and handsaw. Most of these tool-things have been meticulously made from metal and wood to be almost indistinguishable from the everyday, readymade objects they sit alongside, and both are seen in an unexpected light. Paused during a process of metamorphosis, somewhere between the familiar and alien, they encourage us to question what comes first: the knowledge, or the tool? Potentially sparking frustration in their apparent uselessness, Tool-things ask us to look a little longer–it could just be that we don't yet recognize their use.