Toy girl

I took theses pictures with Wang Lin  an amazing photographer assisted by his excellent colleague from the mA photography at London College of Communication Patty Tseng who master perfectly all photographic tolls.  I  show him my toys necklaces and he immediately created a whole universe for each of them with a particular atmosphere. It was a great creative collaboration because the craziness of the jewels allow Wang to experiment different photographic effects, involving lightening, silk fabric and fan , misted glass and crazy make up. 

We had also an amazing make up artist So-Mi Jang, who go from really light and  natural make up to this disturbing colourful creature! 

This photo shoot pushed me to carry my researches about pieces of art involving toys and I got some new inspiration for my jewels from design and sculptures. 

http://bananalin.tumblr.com/

What I noticed about artists using toys in theirs pieces of art,  that they always says from "unwanted" toys but the simple fact of saying "unwanted" makes them "wanted". Actually, from my experience, it's really hard to find "unwanted toys", toys are this  "that obscure objet of desire", at the end of the day,  it's really hard to find toys in big quantity, you always have to buy them, even if you can find for quite cheap from charity shops. So I guess, it's not really about recycling toys (that applied for me to waste or rubbish) but give them a new life. Because people find it really hard to get rid of them, sometimes i'm asking to my friend to give me their old toys or barbie but even if they are on box on a closed closet, they are really emotional bout it  "you know, this was my favourite toys, i used to play hours with them". 

It's by looking to toy box of his children that Robert Bradford had the idea of creating sculptures with toys and unwanted wolly-toys, by seeing heap of multicoloured toys that was piled up in kids room. 

http://www.robertbradford.co.uk/

Serial recycling artist Hiroshi Fuji brings his eco-friendly art to 3331 Arts Chiyoda where he created a large-scale installation using over 50,000 old toys leftover from his toy exchange program. Based on specifications like size and color, Fuji created dinosaurs, flying birds, mountains and walk-ways, filling the entire main gallery with colorful remnants of our childhood.

Exhibition view of Hiroshi Fuji "Where have all these toys come from?" at 3331 Arts Chiyoda

Enormous number of toys are separated by types and color to create this amazing scenery. It is a dream land for kids and also for adults. Fuji created dinosaurs and birds by combining these toys and they were placed lively in this dream space. Without his idea, those toys could have already lost their lives as a waste material.

Exhibition view of Hiroshi Fuji "Where have all these toys come from?" at 3331 Arts Chiyoda

 "I am pretty much moved by the power of number and continuity." say the artist and I guess it's the power of number and accumulation that make that piece of work effective and affective.

Collecting and managing 50,000 toys must not be an easy task. It is not a job required by anybody (of course) and just patience may be required. But going through all of it, Fuji gave us a great experience.

Trawling for materials quickly became an obsession, with Mc Elhinney’s limited budget, natural eye and vivid imagination ensuring he spotted the perfect finds to bring to life his early designs. Plastic toys became the designer’s chosen medium. 

Telling a story with each manipulation, Mc Elhinney meticulously gloss-painted and fused together each figure in a six weeks process, creating the first in his series of ‘Toy’ frames and lamp bases.

What do monkeys, pick-axes, chanterelle mushrooms and cherry blossoms have in common? They are all the basis for some eye-opening lighting. Too often we tend to think of lighting as purely functional, forgetting that it can take a wide variety of forms. John Niero's Monkey Around chandelier riffs on the childhood barrel monkeys that some of us may have enjoyed; Matthias Ries is inspired by Eiger North and woodland fungus; and Shige Hasegawa uses the traditional cherry blossom motif in up-to-date lighting. 

http://www.justnotnormal.us/