Playful Thingamabob
Installation
Size: 27m long
Material: upcycled scrap, paint, metal, wood, wire, etc.
Engaging with ordinary objects of daily life through a lens of humor and absurdity, Playful Thingamabob invites us to a space where logic is suspended and imagination is free to roam. Through continuous, hypnotic motion, the installation evokes a contemplative state — one that gently challenges our perceptions of the trivial and the familiar.
At its center is a handmade funicular: a whimsical, low-tech machine where silhouette cutouts endlessly bounce back and forth. Constructed entirely from retrieved materials — bicycle wheels, metal scrap, wires, wood, rubber tubes, and sandpaper — the work becomes a kinetic symphony. Its mechanical rhythms echo familiar moments from daily life: brushing one’s hair, fixing a tire, slicing a cucumber, scrolling on social media, or watching the news…
Each cutout bounces like a cloud through space, two large grasshopper-shaped sun chairs are placed opposite one another, facing the funicular. They offers a place to rest and a moment for reflection, inviting us to sit and engage with the slow spectacle unfolding before us.
Playful Thingamabob operates as a poetic critique of our consumer culture and our unsatisfied hunt for individuality. Is there truly nothing new left to be excited about? By reinventing discarded materials as instruments of play and thought, Aguirre & Jonnson transform the overlooked into the extraordinary — creating what they describe as a chance operation of the mind, where the banal opens onto a world of strange and unexpected possibilities.
Please, sit down — and enjoy the ride
