Heads down
(2023)
Medium
stainless steel, fabric, aluminum, foam
Measurements
(variable) (installation)
Credit Line
Purchased NGV Foundation
© Joyce Ho and TKG+
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Heads down is an artwork you can touch. Taiwanese artist Joyce Ho has turned rope bollards on their heads, creating an error in the everyday that asks us to reconsider how we interact with barriers and ordinary objects. Visitors are encouraged to gently push the steel stanchion posts, so they rock side to side. The work’s concept came about during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Ho observed how quickly individuals adapted to scanning QR codes to check into locations. Through Heads down, Ho explores muscle memory and the authority of barriers in retraining the body’s relationship to space, habit and ritual.