RIP Tobias Wong
3rd June, 2010
Not sure if a lot of you know about artist Tobias Wong. D. Tobias Wong, the Canadian-born, New York-based artist and designer, passed away in the early morning of Sunday, May 30, 2010. He was 35.
A favorite theme in Wong’s work is meeting the opulent with the ordinary, or ‘rags to riches, with the rags still attached,’ as the designer himself describes it. Where some designers will wax lyrical about the sheer luxury of their creations and others boast of the economy of materials and form, Wong prefers to incorporate both.
Here’s a showcase some of my favourite work from Tobias:
The Ballistic Rose, created and designed by Tobias Wong, is a bullet proof corsage, “a handmade ribbon rose constructed from a single strip of ballistic nylon. This floral hybrid protects your heart in an uncertain world.
iPad case disguised as a used document envelope, complete with an interdepartmental mail background for the home screen.
golden objects of excess and whose purpose is shallow and bottomless. *or you can just call them coke spoons*
This pad twists the use of the paper pad and becomes a reflection on how we spend and save money. The design uses one hundred American dollar bills that are held together with an adhesive spine which you can “peel as you go”.
Two simple, well positioned holes in the mitten between the index and middle fingers now keep you warm and toasty and full of nicotine.
Gold Pills: Digest to increase self-worth, plus it’ll make your poop sparkle!
Designer Karim Rashid was not amused when his book, “I Want to Change the World” was cut by Mr. Wong into the shape of a gun and presented as a critique of designers’ pretensions and a comment on the post-9/11 world.
Design and art can be so stuffy and boy do they take themselves waaaaay too seriously sometimes! Tobias’s edgy sense of humour and sarcastic creations often makes jokes about design history, designers’ pretensions and form and process. His work thrills and delights my inner trouble-maker to no end.
RIP Tobias Wong.
Categories: Totally smitten with.
Tags: Ballistic Rose, Coke Spoon, Designer, Gold Pill, I wan to change the world, iPad Case, Money pad, RIP, Smoking mittens, Tobias Wong.
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