Pharrell Elevates Toys to Art at Toronto’s Design Exchange
By Sky Goodden
The curators of “This Is Not a Toy” liken themselves to the earliest proponents of photography, asserting their medium as art, not utility. Their exhibition of “urban vinyl” (limited-edition toys and toy-inflected design borne of subcultures like manga, graffiti, and hip-hop — and, as the title suggests, not made for children) scans a generation of street-culture-infused luxury collectables, and attempts a new canon. However, while their wares nimbly thread commerce and design, appealing to the aughts’ understanding of high/low cultural fusion — it’s not quite art. But held at Toronto’s Design Exchange and guest-curated by musician, designer, and twenty-first-century Renaissance man Pharrell Williams, “This Is Not a Toy” proposes an exegesis fairly unprecedented, its exhibition of contemporary toy design well-executed, deeply researched, and terrific fun.
Certainly the exhibition communicates a cultural cross-pollination. Storied subcultures and various aesthetics find common ground, promoting an alluring if superficial collection of rarefied objects. However this immersive environment of pop-culture speculation achieves more when it verges on something slightly severe. In one of the show’s most captivating features, Toronto’s Magic Pony inhabits a sequestered alcove where subversion goes bejeweled, and cuteness feels defiled. Curating six urban-vinyl artists in six individual dioramas, Magic Pony (comprised of partners Steve Cober and Kristin Weckworth) form immersive ecosystems, where characters participate in deep — and often quite disturbing — narrative environments. Tom likens this hall of miniatures to a museum of natural history. Gesturing to one artist’s collection of sexy nurses stuck with blood-filled needles, he laughs. “This kind of irreverence is the hallmark of the genre,” adding, “Magic Pony was the first to make me sit-up and take notice.”
While most exhibitions work to avoid — or at least sublimate — commercial affiliation, “This Is Not a Toy” promotes its market-mergers as a testament to cultural exchange. “Usually, exhibitions produce facsimiles of the works in the form of coasters featuring Van Gogh,” Levy says. “But here you see the Kidrobot series and you can actually buy Kidrobot pieces downstairs.” Magic Pony promotes a pop-up shop in the DX lobby that exemplifies this feature most prominently, but the exhibition’s more nuanced works collaborate with commerce too. Bill McMullen adapts the Adidas logo to a Star-Trek hero; Jeanne Beker lends a piece from her personal collection, a child-like doll wearing the profile of Chanel. Commissioned figurines don tailor-made couture, while Pharrell’s personal collection of Kaws paintings feature popular Sunday-morning cartoons.
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