Baby Stroller - Sickle Edition
Shi Jinsong
史金淞
Production date
2007
Object Detail
Media
blackened steel
Measurements
116 x 68 x 85 cm
Notes
The distance between ostensible function and lethal form is exaggerated dramatically in Shi Jinsong’s Na Zha line of baby products, named for the mythical armed prankster who is also China’s patron spirit of gambling. Na Zha was the ‘absolute idol of my childhood,’ says Shi Jinsong, ‘a human made of weapons.’ The god would be proud of Baby Stroller — Sickle Edition (2007), which looks like a sci-fi war chariot, with spiked and bladed wheels like the ones on which Na Zha travels. Its black body, made of the same metal as artillery shells, is pierced with holes that the artist says might actually be bullet holes or starbursts. It is no accident that his works look like props for a sci-fi movie. Social control may not be a thing of the past, he suggests — it may also pervade the consumerist future.
Accession number
2008.070