Tobias Wong is an amazing, conceptual artist who’s work explores the irony of consumerism and has been a great source of inspiration for my thesis project. Through his various products and exhibitions, he has led me to believe that a project where art, design, and conversation coexist makes for a very powerful statement. Here’s a snip-it of his interview with Theme Magazine.
You seem to have a keen interest in how people spend and think about money, and the acquisition of physical objects.
When I moved from Canada to New York, I was fascinated by how obsessed Americans were with material goods. It was crazy how luxury and any sort of goods were so disposable. I wanted to explore and expose the madness behind it all. So I shopped to find out, excusing it as research for my art projects. But ten years later and after much criticism of American consumer culture, I found myself camped out in line as the 15th person to get an iPhone!
Why? Was it about the object, or the cultural phenomenon? I felt like that whole thing was sort of the Beatlemania of consumerism.
I’m a gadget freak, I’ve gone through a million palm pilots, but I had no intention of buying an iPhone. I was skeptical when I read they were going to have no buttons—Palm and other PDA makers tried doing that, and had to bring the buttons back. But the hype and the commercials blasting on the television just magically drove me to get in line—and it felt it great. There’s something about giving in to your desires, that feeling of “I don’t know why I want it, but I do” that’s very satisfying. Also the high of making certain that I was one of the first to get one was amazing.
Read the rest here.