Plastic toy glut Horrifies — and inspires

I am tormented by the plastic bits of toys, discards from the kiddies in my life, that I have been unable to toss (the toys, not the kiddies). There is no practical excuse for holding onto all those scraps from their evolving toy inventory, as well as the remnants from numerous birthday party gift bags, McHappy Meals, dollar-store impulse buys and stocking stuffers.

There is now a solution (in this city at least) to my little problem of hoarding boxes of bits: the Beyond the Blue Box program that accepts the normally rejected plastics on the third Saturday of every month (details at bottom).

But I’m still holding onto the art possibilities, my last excuse for hoarding all that brilliant-hued detritus. I just haven’t come up with my own fabrication plan yet, hence the torment.

But I am inspired by the likes of Japanese Hideki Kuwajima, whose assemblages of toys evoke beetles, reminding me of the Japanese penchant for beetles as pets (and the Kyoto neighbourhood supermarket that sold them.)

And I am in love with Irish artist Ryan McElhinney‘s powerful assemblage sculptures composed of old action figures and figurines typically found in dusty china cabinets, dollar stores, or abandoned toy boxes. The Westminster grandfather clock shown here is composed of Hulk and Toy Story action figures among other items. It was commissioned for a residence in The Palms, Dubai (a massive-scaled artwork in itself). Below, McElhinney’s Pixar-lamp-esque figure is the concept in reverse: a figurine that evokes assemblage.

 

Similar, but incorporating other throwaway forms than action figures, American artist Rondle West‘s work is described as evoking Hindu shrines.

The toys don’t have to be intact, in fact, the remnants can take the work into a more abstracted field,  as seen in Wavelengths (below), by UK artist Steve McPherson. The artist states that his work was created using “unaltered marine plastic debris objects found on the UK coast, 1994-2013.”