RIP Tobias Wong. Died at 35 on Sunday June 2nd. Such a sad happening. Truely one of the most inspirational pioneers to conceptual art and design objects. Impacted my life and work. Confirming that there is a place in between art and design, blurring those lines, then dominating it. You changed peoples lives with your wit. For young designers Tobi was such a great resource, and helpful giving people the time of day, introducing them to people and connections without skipping a beat. A much needed shock to designers’ pretensions and the system of design; where if you weren’t a 30+ yr old male furniture designer with a name, most industry people wouldn’t talk to you. You can see the direct impact of Tobi today, such a variety of conceptual designers and a lot of them young. Just on the day of his death I was emailing him for some advice on a future project. His death was and is such a shock, it would be false to say Tobi and part of his influence didn’t changed my life as a designer and artist, as well as it’s community.
” I don’t want to make art or design necessarily…its just stuff…extra stuff in the world…art galleries and design showrooms are places were I have been able to do what I do…but that doesn’t make what I do either.” Tobias
Coining the term Paraconceptual, Tobi’s work plays between concept and beauty, exposing the similarities between art and design rather than blurring their boundaries. His work finds his expression in real objects. A provocateur by nature, Mr. Wong operated at the fringes of the traditional design world, creating work like a stack of 100 $1 bills, bound in peelable glue like a notepad; a McDonald’s coffee stirrer transformed into a golden coke spoon, and an engagement ring with the diamond mounted upside down, so that the wearer could use it to scratch graffiti; A crystal chandelier dipped in industrial rubber, and Twenty-four-karat- gold pills intended for ingestion and passage, making your shit sparkle. With each new product, Wong subverts popular attitudes about conspicuous consumption with provocative wit and a prankster’s love for trouble. “People want bang for their buck, which I guess makes me the bang.”
“As time went on his work became more and more ironic, sarcastic and pointed,” said Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Architecture and Design. “He had an enfant terrible style of design that was very fresh in New York. Today you see all sorts of people doing conceptual design, but he was one of the first.”
“He used the term para-conceptual to describe his work, but in a way, I think he was para-design, making jokes about design history, designers’ pretensions and form and process,” said Ellen Lupton, the curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt.
nicole nadeau l art+design 