gun shape baby cradle image © designboom

shi jinsong’s work is currently part of ‘china – contemporary revival‘, an exhibition at the palazzo reale, milan, italy. on display is a selection of more than 180 art works including paintings, sculptures, installations and videos by 50 contemporary chinese artists. on show from december 11, 2009 to february 7, 2010.

details of gun shape baby cradle image © designboom

through his razor-sharp sculptures and related works, shi jinsong initiates a dialogue, at once menacing and ironic, between the forms of mythic chinese culture and modern day globalization. the here featured work is part of the series ‘na zha’, a sort of brand name for an outrageously unsafe line of baby products. meticulously assembled in stainless steel from intricate mechanical drawings, they include a deadly carriage; a sadistic cradle; a sinister walker; and a malicious, multi-part toy complete with needle-tipped pacifiers and dismembering abacus. baby boutique confronts its ‘shopper’ with a radically strange and seductive ‘product’, lethal luxury designed to reveal the forces that dominate our lives in unimaginable ways.

detail image © designboom

in the work ‘ne zha’ it appears in the disguise of being protective, consoling and decorative, but its details betray its true function of weapon. it indicates the highest degree of ambiguity in one’s temperament. it presents and represents. it invites and refuses.

gun shape baby cradle image © designboom

side view image © designboom

gun shape baby carriage image © designboom

gun shape baby carriage image © designboom

gun shape baby carriage image © designboom

gun shape baby walker image © designboom

gun shape baby walker image © designboom

detail of gun shape baby walker image © designboom

shi jinsong portrait © designboom

shi jinsong was born in danyang county, hubei province in 1969, he enrolled at the hubei academy of fine arts in 1994, majoring in sculpture and mastering a gamut of traditional techniques. under the influence of three powerful stimuli – radical socio-cultural change in china; a reading of foucault’s madness and civilization; and the birth of his first daughter – the artist began to investigate ideas of transformation and control. he lives and works in wuhan and beijing, china.