above: detail from BCXSY's Golden Glory project
This is the third post about a group of artists to make a point about mass consumerism by gold-plating mundane objects.
How long is an eternity?
How does one quantify the unquantifiable?
What is the span of one day compared with endless time and space?
BCXSY is pleased to present FOREVER! - a collection of uniquely individual and materially rich products that explores how the function, aesthetics, and emotions of design can help to define the indefinable.
In an era of mass production and haste, BCXSY slows down and takes a closer look at what it means to last FOREVER!
Above is how artists Cohen and Yamamoto describe their work titled Forever!"Golden Glory" Materials: mass-produced plastic toys and everyday objects - hand gilded with 23.75k gold-leaf, acrylic-glass plate.
As described by the artists:
"The exclusive one-offs that comprise GOLDEN GLORY explore the necessity of cherishing meaningful objects. Through the laborious art of hand-gilding, common plastic novelties and generic trinkets transcend the realm of the mass produced and meaningless and become truly remarkable modern day keepsakes."Consisting of several subsets, Golden Glory is only a small part of the Forever! project. But it's the part that echoes other art works and limited produced pieces, specifically those of Tobias Wong and Big Game.
Above: Tobias Wong's gold McDonald's coffee stirrer from his "Indulgences" collection.
Above: Big Game's New Rich Gold Bic Pen Cap
Don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing this out to imply that their work is not entirely original or worth exploring, on the contrary. I just think it's interesting how many artists have gilded mundane and mass produced objects as either a way to mock or reflect society or- as in this case- to illustrate the transformation of a common object to a treasured one. When considered, what makes an item 'treasured' has really been defined by that which society considers valuable, in this case the luxe of gold. Hence, the artists are all basically saying the same thing.
Tobias Wong's Little Indulgences and Big Game's New Rich projects both gilded mass produced items. Read and see all about them here.
about BCXSY
(photograph: Sheri Avraham)
BCXSY is a cooperative between designers Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto. BCXSY has several other wonderful projects and pieces worth seeing, be sure to check them out here.