Camera Robots

Artist Cat Bishop has been creating assemblage sculptures for a living since 2006. Some of my favorites are her camera robot sculptures that are super kitschy retro cool. I asked Cat, 'how did you come up with the idea to make these?' and she replied, "I was a collector and reseller of vintage objects. One day I just started stacking things and they came to life. I assembled a lot of my kitchen before I moved on to camera robots. I'd always loved old cameras, especially bakelite ones so I had a few around. I also had many bakelite pool balls so they became the obvious choice for heads."

Bishop has a love for 1950's design that strongly shows in her work. She says, "It's so stylized and easily recognizable, can we say that about the 1990's? Clearly they don't make things like they used to, so I use the old things." Some favorite materials include bakelite, vintage billiard and crochet balls, Kodak Brownie cameras, clocks, 1950s kitchenware, old toys, dominoes, & dice.

Although she does use old cameras, she says she doesn't put legs and a head on rare collectible cameras, so "no hate mail please". She also tries if possible to use cameras that are still functioning and can actually be shot with.

Each sculpture takes on a personality of their own. Most are modeled after human-like robots, but the collection also includes some dog-like ones as well. Each piece is also given a (human-like or dog-like) name.

Enter the camera robot world of Cat Bishop...

"Rufus"

"Sparky"

"Vintage Camera Robots and Their Rocket"

"Amazing Tripod Girl"

"Camdog"

"Hubert" as "a snappy necklace"

Bishops sells both her camera sculptures, and photographs of the sculptures.
To visit her shop on Etsy, click here.
all photos © Cat Bishop.

-JAF