the real toy story

the real toy story. chinese toys and photos of factory workers who produce most of the world’s cheap mass-produced plastic toys ........................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary

the real toy story

a photography and toy installation by michael wolf
john batten gallery, hong kong
2 - 27 november 2004
http://www.johnbattengallery.com

PART 1

the ‘real toy story’ is both an elaborate installation and a
homage to china’s factory workers who produce most
of the world’s cheap mass-produced plastic toys.
it is an installation with 16,000 toys and photographs
michael wolf has taken in chinese toy factories.
the real toy story is a continuation of his interest in the
people and societal changes taking place in southern china.

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china produces 75% of the world’s toys
as a surprise for his son jasper the german photographer
bought a sack (app. 600) of second hand toys at the local
goodwill store and distributed them on every available
surface in his room - surprise!
the effect was stunning.
as they examined the toys closer they made a discovery
– every single one was made in china.

‘jasper observed: ‘I thought santa and his helpers made toys!
it was then the idea came to me: what if I was to make an
installation and cover an entire wall with toys ’made in china’
and juxtapose them with portraits of chinese toy-factory
workers?’ said michael wolf.

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preparing the show
in march 2004, wolf spent 4 weeks traveling through california
with a van, stopping at every second hand store and flea market
he came across.

‘my criteria: that each toy must have a face, and had to have
been ’made in china’. after 30 days, 2000 miles, and hundreds
of shops and fleamarkets later, I had collected app. 20,000 toys.
they were packed and shipped to my studio in hong kong.
there, I proceeded to sand down the back of each toy creating
a flat, rough surface onto which I could glue strong magnets.
the idea was to cover a gallery or museum wall with thin metal
sheets and then attach the magnetized toys.
the magnets are a practical solution to allow me to move the toys
around the walls and give me flexibility in the way I build the
installation. parallel to the process of preparing the toys for the
installation, I visited five toy factories in china where I photographed
the workers producing the toys. these portraits are embedded in
the installation, and add another level of meaning to the project. ’
said michael wolf.

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see the next pages:

PART 2

images of the exhibition

PART 3

china: factory of the world

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michael wolf
was born in munich, germany.
he grew up in the USA and studied at UC berkley and at the
university of essen in germany. he has been living and
working as a photographer and author in china for ten years.
his most recent work deals with the issue of the cultural identity
of the city of hong kong.

in addition to a wide spectrum of publications for international
magazines, three books by him on china have been published
to date: ‘sitting in china’ (published by steidl, 2002)
see the designboom report
http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/seatinginchina.html

and ‘china im wandel’ / changing china (published by frederking
und thaler, 2001).
recently, taschen published his documentation of the shaping of
public politics and opinion making comprising his extensive
collection of chinese propaganda posters.

forthcoming new work includes: ‘the back door’ – photographs
taken in hong kong’s back alleys (thames and hudson will publish
michael wolf’s new work ‘hongkong, the front door/the back door’
in 2005), ‘corner buildings’ – pre-1960s buildings of kowloon;
‘architecture of density’ – depictions of hong kong’s monolithic
apartment buildings.
check out his website
http://www.photomichaelwolf.com

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