Electrohome: 100 Years

May 18 - June 27, 2007

This exhibition continued KW|AG's focus on local industry by bringing together historical artefacts, mediated by a contemporary perspective. Electrohome: 100 Years explored the Kitchener-based Electrohome, an appliance manufacturer that was once at the forefront of their industry. KW|AG has invited Nicholas Rees, Founder and Director of Kitchener Industrial Artefacts Project, to create a context for these artefacts. Of Electrohome's role in local industry, Rees states:

"Electrohome was one of the many local companies, now gone, which produced an astonishing variety of goods - footwear, rubber products, tools, spirits, furniture, clothing and office equipment to name only a few. So much of our industry disappeared so quickly and unexpectedly that we have been left struggling to come to terms with the consequences, which have often been surprising and disconcerting…But artefacts do not lie, and for that reason alone exhibitions such as this one areinvaluable - they remind us of what we once were; our aspirations, hopes and dreams, whether large or small, such as the ownership of a new colour television set, one that was designed and manufactured in Kitchener and was a superior product to its competitors."

 

Nostalgia can also be amusing, especially in our current age of techno-toys; did families really gather around a radio in the evening? Did people actually have to crank a handle to rewind a phonograph? One that played records made of wax? The value of such artefacts inform us of how our technology—and a good deal else—has changed and evolved into the sleek consumer goods and lifestyles of today.

Electrohome advertisement, date unknown. Courtesy of Electrohome.

In this latter respect, Electrohome can be seen as a forerunner of the Information Age, both locally and internationally. The electronic appliances produced by the company and its competitors were the seeds of much of what we take for granted in the consumer and industrial technology of today.

Many of these articles might have been considered whimsical or frivolous when first introduced; others, such as fans and dehumidifiers, were immediately practical. But the novelty of a phonograph or radio quickly became a perceived necessity in a newly evolved technological society where communication had become paramount. In this respect Electrohome and its products can be seen as being ahead of its time, and we can only wonder where an Electrohome computer might have led.