ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

The customized toy show thing might still be pretty insular to those who are already partial to the world of designer toys, but when you throw politics into the mix, you’ll start pulling people out of the woodwork – and when those politics revolve around Barack Obama, you’ll get some pretty hip, smart people. What I’m saying is that you don’t see ol’ McCain inspiring any great works of art.

The Art + Action = Obama 08 toy show, hosted by Jailbreak Toys and located at Toy Tokyo’s NYC showroom (right across the street from their second floor miasma of a shop), was a whole new entity in the burgeoning toy show scene. In a political and economic time that can only be described as ‘brain-stabbingly ridiculous’, over 80 artists came together to represent, reinterpret and memorialize the force of change that they feel that this nation, and the world, needs. While Mr. Obama hasn’t exactly weighed in on the use of his image, I can’t imagine that he’d be anything but honored by the way things turned out.

The diversity of the artists resulted in both serious and humorous visions of Obama, both meaningful and meaningless, and from all cultural backgrounds – which itself is a pretty accurate representation of Democracy’s ‘respect for the individual’. Almost all of these works were based on Jailbreak Toys’ Obama figure, with a few exceptions for some original sculpts. Obama as Madonna, Harry Potter, David Bowie, a tiger, Optimus Prime, Green Lantern, Robin Hood and all manner of pop culture neatness manifested itself. You can extrapolate your own meaning from all of them, and all proceeds from the sales of these artworks went towards the Obama for American campaign.

From the UK, Jon-Paul Kaiser contributed a stark black and white Obama, transforming him into some kind of beautiful three-dimensional drawing. “I feel really proud to be part of the show. Not being from the US, I wasn’t sure whether my work would be wanted or felt to be relevant to the show,” Said Kaiser. “In the UK, there’s been a lot of media coverage from the very start of the presidential campaign, and I think that’s it’s just as important to us as it is to America who gets into the White House. From an early stage, with soundbites from people in the street talking about who they would vote for and why, there wasn’t much focus on previous form nor proposed future policies, it was [based] more on personality, which irritated me a bit. So, I checked out the various peoples’ views, proposals and what they’d done previously, and was blown away by how much work Obama had done, and the amount of proposals he planned to implement if he got in power, especially when compared to John McCain.”

Brian Butler is another artist who’s aware of the impact of this election not only on the US, but the world. His ‘Rock, Paper Scissors’ trio of Obamas isn’t as arbitrary as it might seem. “I’m happy to be contributing to the show – Obama’s my candidate. The mottoes and theatrics of the Republican party have repulsed me over the past eight years… I want to illustrate to the rest of the world that the American public is capable of making an intelligent decision.”

Whether or not all of the portrayals were positive is another issue entirely, with Ton Wayne’s ‘666′ piece taking more than a few viewers aback. In an event that otherwise eschewed violence, Wayne’s piece re-envisioned Obama as either Hitler or Martin Luther King (the audience remains undecided), shooting himself in the head with a brainy spray ejecting from the other side.

Dana Woulf explains his ‘negative’ portrayal of Obama by pairing him with a ‘Captain America’ version of Obama, showing two diverse viewpoints of the candidate, while personally remaining an Obama supporter. “[I] don’t really have the funds to donate to his campaign, so this is an ideal way for me to help his campaign and be involved in the process.”

Jeaux Janovsky’s ‘Barack Star’ breached some kind of art / pop culture gap, as the one and only Obama Girl planted a kiss on his artwork. “With all the amazing talent packed into one great art show and packed further into a such a noteworthy action figure… it feels pretty badass to be part of this surly crew of awesomeness.”

The whole show was backed by some exceptionally funky beats, and was packed wall-to-wall with onlookers and socializers and free beer, as well as a great deal of positive energy and excitement, despite the sardine-tight crowd inside. Sucklord and his Obama Jedi were there from the beginning. “What stood out for me was how many people outside of the normal designer toy scene were there and how moved they were by the presentation. I’ve said it all along, but it seems that the idea is catching on. Toy design is a compelling medium to make a meaningful and nuanced statement. Be it political or personal, action figures are a language and any idea you want to express can be made with them. What made this show so successful is that there were many, many people there who never even considered that as an idea, but they all came away broadened by the experience. It is a good day for designer toys and an even better day for Barack! Props to Jailbreak for pulling it off.”

Democrats sure know how to throw an art party.