Georg Dinkel’s I-reliquaries and shrines captured the hearts of the EuroSynergy audience in Malta. A long time photographer, Georg’s first shrine housed his daughter’s ipod.

The shrines grew bigger and more complex. His latest elaborate creations won best of show honors in the IPCA Awards challenge.

Georg grew up surrounded by both religion and architecture in Germany. Using polymer, salvaged materials and wood he began building ancient-looking constructions that pay homage to today’s important icons – namely Apple products.

Georg’s presentation at Malta was stunning, amusing and inspirational. He makes his own tools from what must be an amazing basement full of odds and sods. His extruder was fashioned from an outdoor spigot handle, a length of pipe, a long screw, and a metal washer. His iphone shrine was built over the skeleton of a lamp salvaged from the trash.

He plans to edit his Malta presentation into an online video that he’ll upload to his site in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can see his winning entry here. In this silly photo Donna Greenberg crowns the ever-irreverant Dinkel with her polymer tiara.

The other top winners include Fran Abrams, Laurie Mika, Angela Garrod, Cornelia Brockstedt, Annie Pennington, Penne Mobley, Claire Fairweather, Joyce Cloutman and Emily Squires Levine. The winning works are posted here.