Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Can you create the Statue of Liberty out of a burger and fries? Do you have the imagination to stage a boxing match between two bananas? There is a seriously talented mind at work in Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things.
This art book / gift book / humor-photo collection will inspire and amuse the reader. But chances are the author's alma mater will not be amused, since this project is the result of a costly degree in Fine Arts Photography. But fine, fun art it is…
Full page photos of everyday items taking on new life is fully surprising, but the book, with very little text, also creates killer puns to explain many of the pieces. At second glance though, you realize author Terry Border’s skill also conveys believable emotion in these everyday objects.
Take a look inside the artist/photographer's mind with the “Peanuts in Mourning” photo of a peanut family paying their last respects to a jar of peanut butter. Border explains the process of fiddling with odds and ends of food, wire, and trinkets to find just the right object to create his images. He is a rare adult with the special talent for finding the extraordinary in mundane household objects.
As a person who can think about the scalding end-of-life issues faced by a marshmallow heading for a cup of hot cocoa, Border conveys a real sense of life in every object he creates. Whether inanimate or animated by his skillful ways with wire, the pictures in Bent Objects indeed tell a story and you can sense the sympathetic nature of the artist. As with his photo of “milk as a cereal killer,” some are word puns, some are strictly visual, all are very, very clever.
