Ah, the classic video store. Now considered an ancient relic made redundant by the age of the internet and streaming services, it’s hard to believe that they were adored by and frequently used by all of society. No matter if you were a cinephile seeking out Werner Herzgog’s newest flick on the human condition or a casual movie enjoyer who just wanted something fun to watch with family, the video store was a mandatory visit every Friday night.

We can’t help but admit that society hasn’t been the same since the death of the video store (in fact, we even talk about it in issue 118!) and it’s not just us who feel this way. Callum Preston is a designer, artist, sculptor and all-around maker who holds this era of VHS domination especially close to his heart, and even went about crafting a realistic interior of a video store for an installation at Melbourne’s own Immigration Museum. We just so happened to catch him for a quick chat about it all, so have a read down below, and make sure to catch a glimpse of his project, Videoland, by going along to the opening night on March 1st.

Hiya Callum! Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi! My name is Callum Preston and I’m a Melbourne artist based in Fitzroy. I primarily create spaces, and I work with design, building, art as well as sign and mural painting. I love creating spaces that have a real nostalgic feel to them.

When it comes to making these spaces, you do it all. What’s your favourite part of making these spaces? I love the actual carpentry side of it all, especially woodworking. I’m very detail-oriented, so I love adding small things that bring a space to life. For example, I don’t just add a phone behind the desk, I love adding used Post-it notes and written pieces of paper that make it seem so much more life-like and used in the same way video store employees would navigate this space.

Why are you so drawn to the ‘90s as an era? It’s funny because when you’re younger you watch movies like Grease that are set in the ‘50s and have a real Americana rock-and-roll feel to it. It’s so interesting, but I cannot relate to it because I never existed at that time. But now, we’re seeing a lot of movies and shows that are set in the ‘90s when I was growing up, and I now understand how previous generations feel about seeing their childhoods displayed on screen.

This time is just so nostalgic to me because I remember so much about it, and I love creating spaces that help you be transported to another space in time. Memories just start flooding back as soon as you enter!

How do you source everything for your installations? Well for this one I needed to find some VHS tapes to fill up all the space. There are a couple thousand titles in this installation, and they’re not all easy to find! It used to be fairly simple – 20 years ago VHS tapes were still used by the majority of people – but since they’ve stopped making them it’s a lot more difficult. I went to a lot of vintage markets, and estate sales and scoured through Facebook marketplace and Gumtree, and I ended up meeting a lot of colourful characters. Every time I got a new box of tapes it was like Christmas!

What inspired you to create this installation at The Immigration Museum? I think that nostalgia is something that everyone can relate to, and everyone can be affected by it. There’s often a tinge of sadness with nostalgia because you’re longing for something that no longer exists. I wanted nostalgia to play a big part in this work, but I didn’t want people leaving it in tears! I’m just really drawn to this era of history, which wasn’t super tech-savvy and physical objects were in their prime.

I love hearing about people’s different experiences and feelings for this time, and I wanted to create a space that is inherently joyful and fun. How we consume media is so much different to what it used to be. Now, everything is at our fingertips but we still struggle to find something good to watch. We used to have to wander down the aisles of a video store, and there’s no algorithm. I’m excited to see people’s responses to this.

Going to a video store often conjures up memories of Friday nights and sleepover parties. What does the video store mean to you, personally? Yeah, I remember grabbing ten or so movies with my friends and spending the whole night just watching them all together, way into the morning. I miss being able to wander around with people and discuss what movies we all wanted to watch, and I feel like, with streaming, we just don’t have that anymore.

How long did it take until you had enough tapes to fill up this space? I went quite hard on finding the tapes early on in the project, because it would determine how many shelves I would need to build. I’d say in all, it was probably a couple of months of finding tapes. I always kept my eyes peeled for any sort of VHS tapes I could find, even on holiday!

What do you hope people will get out of this installation? I hope people just have that moment where they get a little bit lost in their memories of the video store. Because I think it's one of those things that you don't realize you miss until you remember that it's gone. I'm hoping that people kind of go, “Oh yeah, I remember all this!” since it's a visceral feeling to be a little bit transported. I hope that adults get to have a bit of fun because the world is a really serious place, and it’s refreshing to just be a little bit silly now and then.