art collection #2
what is this?
so i was wandering around the salvation army in kowloon tong the other day, when i came across at least a dozen packs of the above. it was the mini barbara kruger that caught my eye.
on closer inspection, all the little weird pieces in the pack are miniature art pieces by well-known contemporary artists, scaled 1:12. along with Kruger, there’s Sarah Charlesworth Red Mask, Alan McCollum 5 Perfect Vehicles, Lisa Yuskavage Blonde Brunette and Redhead, Alexander Ross Untitled, John Newman Bubbles Burst (the weird blue thing that dominates the entire pack).
aside from boxes of this ‘art collection #2′, i found boxes and boxes of figurines, toiletries, teacups and mini furniture designed by established architects and artists, all part of The Kaleidoscope House. weird. the only thing that i couldn’t find was ‘art collection #1′. and everything was copyrighted under Bozart Toys and Laurie Simmons. another artist? that was enough to make me want to buy an iphone just so i could google this thing right away.
upon returning to my cubicle at work, this is what i found:
The Kaleidescope house is an interactive creative play environment for 6-year olds, conceived and designed by Simmons and Peter Wheelwright. Here’s an NYTimes article regarding the project. Simmons also has a blurb about it on her site. Bozart itself seems to be missing a website, despite all the hubbub surrounding their artist-type toys.
since everything at the salvation army was donated, i figured a toy manufacturer gave away all of these. selling price, HK$25. take note of the original selling price here, and the ebay prices here.
seems like an investment opportunity (and not really)! i’m a little disappointed by the quality of the toys… they look sort of rough and unpolished. so random to come across this in the least likely of places.