THE PARACONCEPTUAL ART OF TOBIAS WONG

"In my day artists wanted to be outcasts, pariahs. Now they are all integrated into society". - Marcel Duchamp

PERFECT LOVERS (FOREVER) 2002

Two commercial clocks outfitted with atomic radio receivers which automatically synchronize to the U.S. Atomic Clock and tells time accurate to 1 second every million years.

In a field in which so many people want to be the next Philippe Starck, Donald Tobias Wong stood out as a designer who wanted to be the next Duchamp. Deeply influenced by subversive art movements like Dada and Fluxus, he graduated from the sculpture program at the Cooper Union and went on to produce an acclaimed and influential body of work that questioned concepts like luxury and consumerism in a business that was about promoting them. 

24hrs of PURE SILVER LEAF 1998  so your shit will sparkle 

Pure Silver passes straight through the body
and ends up in your stool - resulting in sparkly shit !

( who says everything has been designed?)

He was an artist, his objects statements and his work made the "public" think. Something surreal, something paranormal, something deeply touching. He conied the term "paraconceptual" to describe his work.

“You couldn’t not remark on his work,” someone said. “You couldn’t not have an opinion.”

That included legal opinions. Mr. Wong, famously, was the target of cease-and-desist actions by several companies whose work he cheekily appropriated and subverted, including the fashion designer Issey Miyake (whose Pleats Please dress he turned into a cover for a computer monitor) and McDonald’s (whose discontinued model of a coffee spoon, once popular with cocaine users, he plated in gold). 

 INDULGENCES

He had too many things to say, too many things he couldn't explain. He was a "paraconceptual" genius and in his work he left so many concepts that still waiting to be discovered. Also his death still a mystery, we only know he killed himself on May 30th 2010 at 35.

I was browsing his website. It's pretty sad but it seems he still around, behind the scenes. A strange but interesting feeling.

 KILLER RING

  Constructed of a razor sharp diamond set backwards in a durable yet comfortable setting, Wong’s engagement ring is to die for and to kill with. Outfitted with a single-karat rock, the ring functions as a serious weapon, but, as always, size matters and the bigger the bling, the deeper the cut.

From the website:

"In a dream i saw a way to survive and i was full of joy" .

I am sorry, but this site has not been updated forever... however, please do enjoy what's here and come back soon as i will be adding dozens of even more exciting projects  (or just GOOGLE me in the meantime for  latest projects and current exhibitions).     

 

JUST "SEND A CLOUD"

When you were a little child you must have been lying in the grass staring at the sky and watching the clouds go by. You must have felt that you would like to touch the cotton-candy-like clouds, you wanted to squeeze them and you wanted to shape them into different forms. You wanted to fly and you wanted to jump on them or maybe you just wanted to lay on them and float.   

The clouds making us think, bringing peace, disturbing, inspiring and sending messages.

The idea comes from a brilliant young mind, the founder is Istvàn Szucs.
"Send a cloud" is a project born from the need to communicate in a special and unique way.

It is out of the crowd and proposing new horizons. Stop you, take a break for a second and listen what you feeling. Express it!! 

Surprising someone with a present is not an easy thing to do. These unique and sewn little clouds are custom made and you can easily send a message with your own words.

From dream to reality, from reality to dream...the clouds are the best way to share feelings and moods.

For more info visit the website sendacloud.com

CRAZY CLOWN TIME-DAVID LYNCH

Composed, performed and directed by David Lynch, Crazy Clown Time is the last musical production of this visionary genius. Love it.

MEATYARD AND HIS GOTHIC AROMA

Dolls, children, abandoned houses, suburbs and masks, a lot. Heavy, realistic, grotesque scenery. Humorous, at times. The images are totally or partially blurred, highly emotional, sweating humanity.

Enigma and paradox of human behavior. Charming, comic and repulsive. Sometimes troubling. 

In the very process of destroying anonymity by denying particularity, the masks refuse to let us dismiss these figures as anonymous “other people.” They become instead effigies of ourselves.

 

 

 

It's a continuous celebration of paradox, an excursion into the metaphysical human territory with an ironic taste. Meatyard is a visionary, realist.

IT'S ALL ABOUT BIRDS: KOBI LEVI

"When I design a shoe I think about it as a sculpture to wear, an art piece you live with. You and your  body affect its look and it affects yours. Footwear should have its life with and without being on the feet, on the contrary to cloths that exist only when being worn". Kobi Levi

 

'bird series' uses well-known iconic appearance of some feathered friends, such as a mallard duck and swan, incorporating into footwear. the colors and shapes represent the color types of feathers, while the beaks become the heel.

 

Kobi Levi is not your average shoe maker; and his shoes are not your average shoe. Choosing to blur the lines between art and fashion, Bezalel academy of art & design graduate Kobi creates handmade “wearable sculptures” that entertain, challenge and perplex their audience. With the shoe as his canvas, Kobi uses humour and social satire to fashion absurdly original footwear that has been exhibited around the world. Having designed commercial footwear in Italy, China and Brazil, Kobi is currently collaborating with both Israeli and international companies to develop his own women’s shoe line.

YOKO ONO "EYE BLINK" FILM

Enchanted by this silent minute...

Camera: Peter Moore. Entry by George Maciunas: “High speed camera, 200fr./sec. view of one eyeblink.”

GAGA'S WORLD(S) AT BARNEYS

There’s always something special happening in NYC and no visit could ever be the same. This year alone there were several exhibits, including the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the MET which I had to miss due to timing, unfortunately.

I was in Ny last week, and for this Christmas the Barneys windows (and the store’s entire 5th floor) are designed by Lady Gaga and her team, which includes her Mom!

A take on Santa's iconic workshop, the project has been realized through the eyes of renowned creative talents: Lady Gaga, Nicola Formichetti, and Eli Sudbrack and avaf, in collaboration with Barneys' creative director Dennis Freedman.

Gaga's Budoir

Created in collaboration with renowned hairstylist Bob Recine, this window is a surrealist take on Lady Gaga’s own personal boudoir. Constructed entirely out of hair, the room is filled with iconic references to hair styles and fashions from Gaga’s past.

Gaga Crystal cave

 

This mysterious ice world is a light installation featuring a mermaid sculpture reminiscent of Gaga.

Gaga Machine

This window plays with the idea of Lady Gaga physically morphing into a gilded motorcycle.

Gaga Constellation

Q4, an NYC-based experiential digital agency, collaborated on this window, which features a film by director Tim Richardson and Nicola Formichetti. The interactive short film portrays Gaga as a series of evolving constellations.

BE AMAZED. 20 YEARS OF DAZED&CONFUSED EXHIBITION

Preservation Vamp, 1995, photography by Donna Trope, styling Katie Grand

Celebrating 20 years of their controversial magazine content, the Dazed and Confused exhibition at Somerset House brings together a host of various photo shoots, cover shots and artwork. Having used a variety of different ways to tell visual stories, the magazine commissioned work from many influential photographers, designers and artists over the years, all of whom left their mark on the publication and it's reputation for being a cutting edge voice of the new media.

 

 

 

Within the exhibition, two smaller courtyard rooms are dedicated to the late Alexander McQueen’s involvement with Dazed & Confused. There is a room solely devoted to the 1996 ‘Fashion-Able’ shoot which represented disability in a way that no other magazine had ever attempted, both then and now. The images in this room highlight McQueen’s ability in powerful social commentary and also his passion for seeking innovative ways to get a message across.

 

CHRISTIAN DADA: PURE CREATIVITY FROM TOKYO FASHION WEEK

The Spring Summer 2012 collection of Christian Dada is very dark but absolutely addictive and cool. The black aura that hovers look by look to increase the pathos and to highlight the subtle creativity of the designer.

This season’s theme is entitled “SIGNAL/NOIZE.”  This is the second runway show for the brand, and they exclusively presented womenswear. The collection was developed with influence by dumb type’s work [S/N].  “Signal” represents cloth and “Noise” representing mixed media.  In this vein, they have likened the icon “death” to that of bones, and then created a collection based on this visual.   

THE STUNNING CREATIVITY OF LISA WALKER

“I’m not really a technical expert in anything”, claims jeweller Lisa Walker, and many of her pieces certainly look like it. This is jewellery that seems to leave all traditional notions of skill behind. If you are drawn to a brooch like this one, it is not in admiration of the handwork that lies behind it, but something else. 

Lisa Walker is a New Zealand designer who lives in Germany since many years. An eccentric and bizarre art, which is observed in its exaggeration. These jewelry pieces are stunning and you definitely do not let go unnoticed.

MINNA PARIKKA BETWEEN MODERNISM AND ROMANTICISM

Minna Parikka, is a finland young designer with a strong creative ability. At 15 she draws her first shoes and at 19 years is in England to study footwear design at De Montfort University. She won the "Young British Glove Designer" conferred by the British Glove Association and in 2005 she launched the first collection signed Minna Parikka. It's about  gloves, bags and shoes .. must have with a retro' flavour! A niche style, but not difficult to understand. A romantic touch mixed with glam and modernism. Minna Parikka already boasts names like Lady Gaga among his fans .. definitely to watch!

 

 

DISNEYLAND "UNDER ATTACK"- MAX PAPESCHI

Max Papeschi is the 'hottest' digital artist of the moment. Disecrator, polemical and politician, director/ author in theater, television and film. As a figurative artist, his approach to the Art-World was an instant success both public and critics. His Politically Scorrect pop cites the 'American Life' revealing its horrors in a way so ironically realistic. From Mickey Mouse to the Ronald McDonald warmongering Nazi cult icons lose their sympathy turned into a collective nightmare. A new-pop poetry from the strong social content, but cut thin, ironic and always over the top.

TERRY RICHARDSON "MOM&DAD" EXHIBITION AT COLETTE

I was in Paris for fashion week but unfortunately i had no time to go around snooping. From the September 26th till November 5th, there's one more reason to go to Colette,"Mom & Dad". The Terry Richardson exhibition that features photos of his parents; a series of portraits, letters and interiors document the very origins of Terry Richardson.  Treating the subject as any of his other shoots, Terry delves deeply and indiscriminately with his camera revealing the all too personal nature of his life… his family life.  The exhibition is joined by a small pop-up store, which will include a selection of products such as T-shirts, G-shock and BabyG Casio watches, Richardson’s Moscot collaborative glasses, “Uncle Terry” figure collection, Terry’s custom bear, and all of Terry’s books.

THE KING OF NYFW: PRABAL GURUNG

Thanks God the New York fashion week boredom was interrupted by a young talent who is making headlines of his own. Prabal Gurung launched his first eponymous collection during New York Fashion Week in February 2009 with a presentation at The FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea. Gurung was born in Singapore and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was in New Delhi, India that his design career truly began. While studying at New Delhi's National Institute of Fashion Technology, he apprenticed at several local production and fashion houses and designed with Manish Arora. Gurung's travels took him to Melbourne and London, where he assisted stylists for various fashion shows and international publications. In 1999, after seven years of traveling, Gurung moved to New York City. He began his career in New York interning for Donna Karan while attending Parsons School of Design. In his first year, he was awarded the "Best Designer" title at the annual Parsons / FIT design competition. 

Prabal Gurung had a sensational SS2012 show during the last NYFW; an avant-garde, sexy and irreverent woman. Man cut blazers, along with shorts mixed with prints, colors which bringing joy. Outfit by outfit sees the surprising combination between sado latex and romantic prints. A genius triumph that we will see next summer worn by the coolest celebrities.