ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Judas Arrieta is a Spanish artist working in Beijing. He’s been working as a painter for 15 years and has exhibited throughout Spain, Europe and Asia. His work focuses on the intersection between art history (academically speaking) and Asian pop iconography (Manga). Judas enjoys the transformation of daily objects–a fridge, a bag of chips or a T-shirt for instance. And now, he’s just produced his first toy, a whopping 35cm. (14-inch) tighty whitey-sporting PVC figure called JUDAS-Z.

JUDAS-Z is a mix of three characters:  Mazinger Z , a panda and the artist himself. The story of the character is that he wants to become a legend, a hero and go beyond two dimensions–thus the JUDAS-Z toy is born. Says Judas, “Nowadays a lot of shops of these products are authentic galleries of art, they have ancient articles or customized toys by designers of fashion with high price. I do not go against of this closely related system with the consumption of masses and the marketing. Simply I want to use the same arms with other aims.”

The figures can be found in two shops in Beijing, one art gallery in Barcelona and another gallery in Judas’ home town of Donostia (Spain). There are nine different models of JUDAS-Z, each in an edition of 50 pieces. A normal edition of the figure will run you 120 Euros ($152 USD), but for a couple more Euros (130-170), you can get one of the special editions that come with a hand-painted box, signature and certificate. Shipping is free. Fresh stuff from Spain by way of China. Check it!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdrS6RtPnhc]