The Luminato Festival has invited nine contemporary Canadian artists from across the country to create a work of art known as Stockpile. This life-sized human claw machine lets you zip around a person sitting in stirrups holding pincers, so you can win a small toy like beach ball.
A $2 donation gives you one minute to control the “claw” using buttons to move left or right, up or down. The performer selects the toy based on where you lower her.
What is available in this massive glass box is a statement itself. As Toronto Star wrote:
Stockpile suggests how the life of an object can be cyclical, and can find new purpose when its initial use has expired, instead of ending up in a landfill, or worse. Objects donated so far span the predictable — stuffed animals, or kitschy cast-offs, such as a Carmen Miranda cookie jar — to the profound: a prosthetic arm, donated by the son of a woman whose need for it expired in the most remarkable way.
Available until June 22, Stockpile is the brainchild of artists such as Brendan Fernandes, Dean Baldwin, Charles Stankiewicz and Rudy Wiebe. Around 1500 items are available for lucky participants.
The Luminato Festival is a week-long festival of arts, lectures and public art installations. Check out previous Digital Journal coverage here.
