Makes me wonder . . . a). Has Ron ever seen labia? b). Other than 8 year old boys . . . who would want to openly display this? c). Were all involved in the project totally fucking high for the ENTIRE duration of its production? 2020, the gift that keeps on giving!
The sculpt reminds me of that VICE doc about Japanese fetish porn where the milk goes out of the butt into the fish and some poor girl has to drink the fish butt milk. There, unthink that.
Pre-emptive strike . . . Looks expensive and super complicated for something that will possibly look cheap and clumsy!
Yeah, I heard the bells toll when I saw the post. Surprising it took this long and surprising it isn’t some obscure BxH collab as well. throw in whichever Japanese tattoo artist is trying their hand at vinyl this year and you got yourself the toy of the decade. Lol
How have I never seen this?! I am highly intrigued Yknow I honestly did not mind this flower design as just a painting or print but this is a little...clunky? Disproportionate? I can’t put my finger on it.
Not yet a toy but already a statue. Same feeling, proportion doesn’t do it for le on this one. Otherwise a big fan of Murakami and would love having most of just toys in my collection.
I think get what you are saying and I find it personally impossible to draw a line anywhere on the spectrum from too much appropriation of an iconic character to creating an entirely new one. I can only see some things I like and some i don’t. Would you say Kaws character is too much Mickey Mouse? Is Dalek character also too much of an appropriation from Mickey? Closer to us, do you see Rich’s Ollie too close from the two headed Bemon or original enough? I personally find Ron’s fascination for pop art and his take on it interesting enough for me to look at (but not try to own). I think a lot of what we call art is a regurgitation of images and felt senses, put together in an original enough way, hopefully offering us an original perspective or giving us new felt sense whether they bring us back to past art pieces or pushes us to new territories. Probably overthinking it. Definitely often guilty of doing that.
Where Murakami is avant-garde (even if his splash was 20-odd years ago) Ron English is pure unadulterated derivativeness. They’re both artists that have made a far larger impact than we can discuss in this space. That said, both mentions are well deserved in this thread. English for having still never made anything that can enter art canon without at giant citation and Murakami for seemingly turning heel from making art to making art-products. Fugly toys (even if one is a prototype), and their accolades are well deserved. as one of my peers said to me once as I made snide remarks on someone’s art work: “you can’t expect every artist to have acquired taste and then on top of that for it to be good” toys are the same, and the fun there is that the stakes are way lower. I appreciate that about Murakami, dunno where English stands on it.
yes. this is the only Dalek I recognize. I don’t think it’s too reminiscent of Mickey Mouse at all... maybe in the ears if I squint.
It puts a smile on my face but for different reasons probably. I mean, people love his stuff. Whadyagonnado? And i do still like MC Supersized. But seriously, the balls on that guy though. "This masterpiece." I thought artists weren't supposed to say that about their own work, not in the general sense, like speaking for the public. Just because a toy sells well, that doesn't make it a masterpiece Ron, stop believing your own hype!
Declaration of masterpiece aside, I actually enjoyed listening to Ron. The way he thinks is really interesting and you can tell he is a businessman with artistic abilities not an artist first. It’s a very different take from most toy artists and you get a sense of why his success has probably eclipsed everyone but Kaws. Not saying I enjoy his work, I had a few Mc supersized early on, and we could also talk about the success and revenue that was able to bring Secret Base and the bonus there. But seeing him for who he is and not asking him to be a noble sofubi artist, it’s an interesting listen. And having visited beacon and seen his gigantic gaudy studio/gallery from the road, I can tell you it’s kind of inspiring to see any self-made artist/businessman do it their way and find the success he has had. All going the anti-HxS NNN route, offering affordable toys to the masses and not over priced limited hype to the few rich enough to pay out.
