tobias wong 1974-2010

tobias wong in 2008 at experimentadesign amsterdam
portrait © designboom


canadian-born designer tobias wong passed away sunday, may 30th, 2010 at the age of 35.
making a name for himself at such a young age, he was always provocative and witty,
well known for his work which mocked its own consumption and subverted attitudes,
injected with cultural commentary.



‘this is a lamp’, 2001 was wong's debut project in which he transformed a philippe starck chair into a lamp
image © designboom


his dear friend and frequent collaborator aric chen has written:
'through his work, wong helped bring forth much of what is now taken for granted in
contemporary culture. influenced by dada and, especially, fluxus, he questioned authorship
through appropriation; held a mirror to our desires and absurdities; upended the hierarchy
between design and art, and the precious and the banal; and helped redefine collaboration
and curation as creative practices. working within what he termed a 'paraconceptual' framework,
wong prompted a reevaluation of everything we thought we knew about design: its production,
its psychological resonance, its aesthetic criteria, its means of distribution, its attachment to
provenance, its contextualization and its manner of presentation. wong was a keen observer,
an original mind, a brilliant prankster, and an unerring friend.'



'gold pills', 1998
so your shit will sparkle - pure gold leaf passes straight through the body and ends up in your stool...


also known as 'tobi', he moved to new york city in 1997, where he studied at the
cooper union school of art, graduating with a major in sculpture. throughout his short career,
his projects included those for cappellini, Hermès, prada / OMA, the apartment,
comme des garçons, colette and swarovski crystal palace, to name a few, and his work was
exhibited at MoMA, new york, art basel miami, moss, cooper hewitt...



tattoo, 2002 by jenny holzer
tobias wong approached holzer at a show and asked her to write 'protect me from what I want' on his forearm,
which he then had permanently inked



box cutter, 2002
zinc-cast and chrome plated with engraved text: 'another notion of possibility'



'coke spoon 01', 2008 in collaboration with ju$t another rich kid
bronze casting of the ubiquitous bic pen cap dipped in gold

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