Curious Devices
Jeanette May’s still lifes reveal our complicated relationship with obsolete technology by juxtaposing the seductive designs and the inner workings of Curious Devices. Her photographs display a reverence for finely crafted merchandise, industrial design, and scientific wonders. The technological tableaus span antique stereoscopes and art deco clocks to Bluetooth headphones. Each object’s style, color, and construction epitomize a period of both aesthetic and technological advancement. May opens some devices to expose the archaic gears of movie projectors and the enigmatic architecture of circuit boards. What becomes of the beloved tech that stops working or can’t be updated?
Curious Devices continues the exploration of beautifully designed vintage technology begun in May’s Tech Vanitas series. Surrounded by rich silks and damask wall covering, arrangements of domestic wares once again suggest 17th century Dutch vanitas still life paintings with their air of craft guilds, international trade, and personal wealth. Adding screw drivers and other tools to the assembled relics illuminates our desire to revive the damaged or deceased, as well as a culture of designed obsolescence and its environmental impact. Some of her still lifes employ the bird’s eye view of product photography and advertising imagery. In an era overflowing with products, the temptation of worldly goods takes on new meaning. Curious Devices examines the present and the past of technology without easy answers but rather, like the Dutch vanitas, with a sense of wonder and trepidation.
Curious Devices, 2020-24 © Jeanette May
Purchase Curious Devices
The photographs in this series are captured digitally and presented as archival pigment prints in editions of 10. Standard print sizes include 12 x 18,” 16 x 24," and 24 x 36”; larger sizes may be considered. These photographs are available for exhibition and purchase. Prices start at $900 USD.