The exhibit, 'Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy' pays homage to traditional Japanese Kokeshi, brightly painted wooden dolls with no arms or legs, at the LATDA in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in downtown Los Angeles. A giant crocheted doll by Emi Motokaw greets museum goers at the entrance, welcoming them into the three-part exhibit. The first part shows Itske and Anthony Stern's collection of traditional Kokeshi, followed by 11 contemporary artists' original takes on the Kokeshi in diverse media. For the third section entitled 'Custom Kokeshi 2009,' curator Christina Conway gave over 100 artists an identical blank Kokeshi form to create pieces of art.
Cool Hunting asked Conway to tell us more about the world of customized toys, the artists and the surprises she found along the way.
What inspired you to do this show?
I started collecting a few random vinyl toys a few years ago, but was always on the lookout more feminine pieces. I loved the idea of the same toy customized by a series of artists, but I wanted to see more diversity in the style of art. I remember talking to different toy designers at Comic-Con and asking why more women were not included, everyone just laughed and shrugged it off. The vinyl toy market is rather male oriented, considering that most designs are created 'kawaii' style, it's a bit ironic there are not more girls dominating the scene. With my custom shape based on a feminine form I have been trying to introduce finer art to the custom toy world. So many talented artists, illustrators and designers were being overlooked. I wanted to see my favorite people work on a 3-D form too. After a series of events, I looked into creating my own show. Don and Dylan of Subtext Gallery were open to seeing what I could do. I have them to thank for getting the project started, without someone willing to try something new none of this could have happened.