My OBT

What if you spent every day looking for One Beautiful Thing?

Toy Story

10 Comments

toy

Coarse

This is way out of my comfort zone, so bear with me. These are the toy sculptures by Coarse, the duo comprised of artists Mark Landwehr and Sven Waschk. Although I was initially intrigued by them, I had rejected them as too anime, too far outside of my usual taste for inclusion in the blog. But hours later, the damned things were still haunting me, so I had to retrace my steps and go looking for them again. I was quite vexed that it took me a while to find them the second time.

There’s something undeniably compelling about them. They have a mass, a gravitas, that I wouldn’t normally associate with toys or, more accurately, toy-like sculpture. I just can’t get away from the things, so here they are for your consideration. I recommend you go check out the Coarse website. It’s full of chilling, intriguing stories about the unexpectedly gorgeous characters they create.

I’d love to hear your theory on why they so disturb my equilibrium.

All photos property of Coarse.

Author: Donna from MyOBT

I have committed to spending part of every day looking for at least one beautiful thing, and sharing what I find with you lovelies!

10 thoughts on “Toy Story

  1. These are incredibly well designed pieces. The use of angles and shapes really appeals to me. That element reminds me of how I approach drawing zombie animals. I get what you mean about them being unsettling. The word that came to mind for me was “awry”. There’s something both familiar and simultaneously unfamiliar about them. Maybe that’s what we find unsettling, that instability?

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  2. I’m not usually a fan of this type of thing either. But there is a beauty about the smooth lines and the anatomically correct musculature that fascinates me. This is art, and art well done.

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  3. I encounter a lot of anime and after a while I’m all anime’d out. There is something annoying formulaic about them. These pieces, on the other head, tell a more human story in their postures, positioning, and how they’ve been photographed. They also look like they’ve been made exceptionally well.

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  4. These pieces have been on my mind all day and now I’m looking at them all a second time. I went to the website and saw the descriptions of the art pieces and read some of the prose that accompany them and they are “heavy”. For example, toy 7 is described as “the rise of pain in dreams” which to me sounds perfect, albeit disturbing and melancholy and a bit horrific. I am fairly sure these pieces will be calling to me for a long time to come.

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