Shelf Life Project

A personal project from a shelf of nostalgia and a lifelong passion for audio equipment and other curiosities that link my dad and I but from opposite sides of the connection.

He loved them because they were new technology and I because they are nostalgic vintage. When my dad passed away in 2014 I inherited his now vintage objects of audio on “The Shelf” that he had kept at the top of his wardrobe since we were kids. He was always buying the latest audio equipment. We had a running joke of how long it would sit on the shelf before he would open it. A good 40-50 years for some of these. Funnily enough they now sit on a huge shelving unit with my own huge vintage audio and curio collecting from over my life time.

The loose plan for the project is to remake the items off the shelf as ceramic sculptures, with the plan to have an exhibition at the end with a shelf of the originals next to the sculptures.

To keep it a surprise as to what is coming next I will be keeping what's on the shelf a surprise.

Music has always moved me. A whole new world opened up to me when my dad entrusted me to use his turntable, taught me to load up and operate the reel to reel and the tape deck on his stereo.

There was always music playing in the house and in the car.

It lead me to start collecting records, tapes and later cds and in turn bought about my DJ alter ego “Miss Fabrik8”

Music is a time stamp that connects us to a place, feeling, person or a space in time. So too do these objects even thought they carry no sound they are the sound carriers.

This project is a whimsical way to honour that connection with my dad and the love of music he instilled in me.

Shelf Life Objects to date

001 Turntable
002 EQ Walkman
003 Beat Up Mixtape
004 iPod
005 Mini Reel to Reel
006 Reel to Reel
007 Mini Disc

Available to purchase here