Toys are us

I'm still fascinated by toys, I see them as a miniature reproductions of our world. When i'm going to supermarket i still like going to the toys department to have a look.  I'm going to sound reactionary but i feel sad toys are desapearing from children rooms in favour of video game and electronic devices. 

I have always collected all kind of toys, little cat figurines, kinder surprise toys…

interesting use of Mecano: Ignacio Lozano Kaleidoscopic second skin 

A collector has a desire of possessing, a need for a spontaneous activity, a need to classify objects. Collection relies on the impossible dream of completeness. Collector gather completed things in order to compose an uncompleted things. 

If you look at popularisation book of psychologies, this endless quest of acquisition could be read as an attempt to restore the self-image by completing it with new elements, like a narcissistic valorisation, objects as extension of ourselves. 

http://www.freyajobbins.com/sculptures.html

"Freya creates her original and detailed assemblage by using a very NON traditional sculptural material - plastic doll parts and toys. She utilizes miscellaneous pieces of dolls and toys to create remarkable humanoid assemblages of faces, heads  and larger busts. Each piece of plastic is painstakingly carved, glued layer over layer, creating depth to each unique assemblage."

"My work explores the relationship between consumerist fetishism and the emerging recycling culture within the visual arts. Due to our society's over  consumption of plastic children's toys,  the materials  I need for my assemblages are all very accessible." http://www.freyajobbins.com/

http://www.freyajobbins.com/sculptures.html

I guess, the effect of those toys, necklace are accumulation, the fact that i'm putting a lot of toys together, "how come you have so much of them?" where do you find them?" Accumulation is on of the prefer mode of expression of  modern life.  In a world  deprived from meaning where no stable value subsisted, accumulation and endless DIY give to the individual an illusion of power in his fight against death.  The fact of accumulating  little cars or dolls could be translate as a attachment to childhood, a kind of regression which find an outlet in collection. 

ADAM URASHIMA's workshop (it's a bit like my room) 

I love crazy japanese fashion kawaï style, a japanese friend told me "I don't like fashion in my country , I can't look at it, my eyes hue", I love french minimalism so much" so I think we should switch  

Tokyo fashion week 2013 ADAM URASHIMA

http://www.writtenafterwards.com/

Toys is first considered as a medium, a support of meaning produced by adults for children. Children are the "reader" of toys in the sense that they have to decode their meaning and the users because they produce an meaningful action from their reading.  

Mette is an amazing performer and costume designer, she can take a leggings Shakespeare sonata character to a posh porcine British lady being in the mid-time a disturbing  cabaret policeman.  We had the PDP base-room for ourself on saturday afternoon and it became  for us a real playground full of creative possibilities. From a French point of view she had this "nordic touch" aesthetic disturbing and iconoclastic combined with her own genius making everything she touches extravagant playful and unique! 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mette-Sterre/167909496565302?fref=ts

As a child, I was fascinated by dinosaurs, especially reconstitution of big skeletons in Natural History museum, i've seen some necklace reproducing skeletons but not the all animal so I collected dinosaurs, toys to make one. 

Tatty devine dinosaure skeleton necklace
https://www.tattydevine.com

 Because some where to big for the necklace I had to cut them in two pieces and make slices.

Who want a dino burger? 

I guess, toys  a way from children to try his hand at the adult life. Toys are a parallel pedagogy, with toys children create fictive situations, where children adopt a role, have actions and typical adult's behaviour. They look at the conceptual worlds of adult, dismantle it, assimilate it and practice it. Plastic colourful toys are also a great device in fashion and design.  

From the plastic animal farm animal my favourite, I think it's quite a cute animal, I don't know why everybody find them disgusting, with this necklace I wanted to illustrate the expression pearl for pigs/ donner des perles aux cochons.  

"tea time"

This really cute earrings with the two parts of the pig (front and bottom as if piggies where crossing your brain perfectly match with the necklace) 

Would you marry me? 

I love my pig with a crown ring, for me it epitomises the subverting carnivalesque in Bakhtin literature theory, or the concept of Shakespearian fool, the king is a pig and the pig is king! 

Ce collier m'a donné du fil à retordre au sens propre comme au figuré. 

I had to slaughter 8 dolls by cutting theirs hands, then make small holes in it and fix it to the necklace base with wires. I like the "begging feeling" coming from this piece. they seem to say "save me save me" 

I got the inspiration from this picture of a soap dish that a friend posted on my facebook wall (I like the fact that everytime people find something wierd on the internet, they post it on my wall "I thought you will like that" 

LORD OF WAR

warning: this necklace doesn't support bear of arms, guns should always remain in plastic! 

Guns are used a lot in jewels, it's quite a nice and 

sulfurous object, the result it sometimes a bit "xxEmoheartbangbangxx"

"Bang Bang, he shut me down" 

"Elle a les yeux revolver, elle a le regard qui tue, elle a tiré la première"

Another clever way to use plastic toys by the designer Domicic wilcox http://www.dominicwilcox.com/warbowl.html

War bowl is made by melting historically accurate plastic soldiers from past battles.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the War Bowl two new versions have been created. The red Battle of Waterloo bowl is made with melted British Artillery and French Infantry figures. The black English Civil War bowl uses Royalists and Republican figures.