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Task One's "Kidrobot - 118 Prince Street" custom Dunny... is INSANE!
Do you want to know how Task really feels about this... click through for an entire backstory, that includes a very riveting opening line!!!
Dear Kidrobot, Go fuck yourself...
I don't usually write or explain much about my customs when I finish them aside from title of the piece, the show or event it happens to be for, and possibly the price. At most maybe what's it's made out of, or how many LED's might be inside. I don't create an epic tale or back-story of the newly born character or creation. I also kind of believe if someone needs to explain the piece to me then the artwork doesn't do the job it was intended to do.
Anyone who follows me on facebook lately might have heard me say I'm not a big fan of artists overly taking advantage of others peoples art, ideas, and hard work in the form of pop culture, by pumping out piece after piece of tweaked version of Mickey Mouse, Charlie Brown or Homer Simpson to line their pockets. which definitely seems to be the craze nowadays more then ever. Whoever has seen my work or my custom toys knows I am not the one to slap two x's on a dunny or a cigarette in its mouth, say it’s my thing, collect my check and call it a day. I also hope I never come to the point in art career, (if you can call it that) where I am even tempted to phone it in like that and stop pushing my creativity further down the rabbit hole. So I'm still not going to try to sell you my newest piece with a clever twist on pop culture or mystify you with an alluring back story I am going to share something with you for those who care to read on,how this piece came to be, why I wrote what I did at the top of the page, and a look into my love/hate relationship with the necessary evil that is Kidrobot.
People who know me and some who don't might have heard me say the occasional "fuck Kidrobot, they suck". and I'm pretty sure I mean it. So, why spend so much time and dedication to this piece? Well, because I love Kidrobot at the same time. I guess it's kind of like the older brother who abuses you and kicks your ass, but you kind of need him protect you so you don’t get your ass beat after school. or maybe just a good friend who makes a lot of stupid life decisions and dickmoves, but you been friends so long it's not worth throwing away.
In my younger days running around Manhattan I had my first encounter with KR. I accidentally stumbled across what I believe was the first dunny show. Big mega munny size dunnys all painted up... one was a glass fish tank.. it was amazing. I never saw anything like it. it wasn't held in the store but a storefront near by. but I quickly found the shop too. KR and the "bomb the system" or the "scrapyard" or whatever they graff shop on canal calls itself now a days, opened my eyes to the world of designer vinyl toys. I was sure to stop in and see what was new on their shelves almost anytime I was in the city. I watched the graffiti community, which I was already heavily intrigued and part of embrace the vinyl toy scene. And watched Kidrobot along with the help of some other companies give street artists and graff heads a legal canvas to express their ideas and give people from my world and artists without a bachelors degree in fine art or design a voice in the professional world of art and business for that matter. then the honeymoon ended.
After a while came the onslaught of cutesy things. normal household or food items with eyeballs and a smiley face on them. normal things with moustaches on them. hey I’m all for the occasional funny looking mustache... who isn't? they were obviously shooting for some different demographics that weren't me. Can't be mad at them for that, right? but, at the same time their quality seem to taking short cuts. pieces started to look more like happy meal toys then works of art. just bad designs. (cough cough de la soul pieces cough),, bad paint jobs not lined up on multiple pieces. then the branch out into clothes… again fine… your selling a lifestyle… marketing yada yada yada... but then came the neon. again not my thing. We can chalk that up to fashion trends revisiting the late and not so great 80’s … but it got to the point where I wouldn't wear any of the apparel available even if I wanted to. A plain logo tee is now bright pink. If you wear neon pink that's your prerogative and we are probably not now or ever will be friends. Don’t take it personal.. I’m just not into loud annoying people.
Later I moved across the country for "greener" pastures..... and found myslef eventually working with a competitor in vinyl toy industry. while KR chugged along doing it's thing, opening up a couple new shops. putting out things with eyeballs and smiley faces attached to them, and the occasional good piece so you couldnt hate them all the way. and emerging as powerhouse in the vinyl toy industry, riding mainly on the power of Tristan Eatons dunny designs, and creating a strange homoerotic love affair with Huck Gee.. One of the few things Kidrobot has continued to do right over the years is the development of the Dunny and Munny.. keeping the dunny for the new up and comer artists and urging the consumers to use the creative sides of their brain and try it themselves with the DIY munny platform. It was a little while of having my feet in the designer toy industry I discovered the whole subculture of a subculture, creating these customized vinyl pieces. and not just the munnys. artists were taking these rare, some cases hard to find collectors items and scribbling their own stuff right over them. my mind was blown.
As this new phenomenon grows and some artists are making a living or some kind of of one off painting on toys... any customizer has to ask themselves where would they be without kidrobot? And for that we all owe them some level of respect and gratitude. Not too mention all the designer toy stores that would go under without their product or the ones who get forced to shut down when an actual KR retail store moves into their area,,. personally they have had a big effect not only in my artistic vision but the direction my life is headed in. I could not have guessed this in a million years five years ago today. I would say that's a pretty big impact. so we heard some of the good and bad. now comes the ugly.
I continued to dive into the world of custom toys I joined the kidrobot forum and posted some of my creations and checked out everyone else's. Kidrobots blog started posting some of my versions of custom toys without me sending them an email or anything. needless to say I was honored. and then other blogs started posting them. and more and more art toy show invitations started rolling in. blogs started posting pics of unfinished pieces and stuff I was still working on minutes after I posted. I'm not complaining or bragging.. I was extremely flattered people actually dug the stuff I was making. I consider myself extremely lucky to even be a little bit of a splash in the ocean of awesomeness that is the vinyl toy scene… in fact everyone I seemed to meet in the industry from artists to toy companies to bloggers and fans all seemed like genuinely cool and down to earth people. and I have met some people I consider good friends along this journey... except for those elusive people over at Kidrobot for some reason.
About a year and a half ago I got an email from the people over at what has become the industry giant over at KR. they asked me if I would like to be their newest King of the Boards, ( their artist of the month). a couple of my friends and great artists Leecifer and Dril one have recieved the honor before me and I was touched. Gladly!. I responded. they told me they'd ship me a Dunny to customize and in a couple months they would do a giveaway contest on their blog. a few months of no Dunny I got a email saying they needed to push it back a few months... a few moths after that with no Dunny to be found… I got another email explaining they need to push it back again.
While this was going on I moved to Colorado. I received an invite to come check out the Boulder Headquarters. Which seemed to be a step in the right direction. I also applied for a job at the Boulder Store when I heard it was opening. I was not called in for any kind of employment from manager down to sales clerk and stock. Which is kind of puzzling when I can’t imagine there are too many people in the boulder area with more experience in field of designer toys then me, working for and with designer art toy companies and shops, curating toy shows and my time helping run major ecom retail fashion sites. Specially upon visiting the store and the work force seemed to be high school kids that most likely couldn’t tell me anything about any toy or artist in the store.
Meanwhile my fellow customizer and buddy Nerviswr3k had the same Kig of the Boards honor bestowed upon him. and was eventually set up to go before me. although you never saw Nervis king of the boards tribute because although Nervis had completed his Dunny, the Relationship between artist and corporation fell apart. talks soured, parties pulled out and I was finally asked to step in and have my piece ready... I was a little dissapointed in how it happened but still game to do it. Instead of an 8" Dunny to customize, like all prior recipients, I received a mini bub and a mini munny to customize. to be honest I felt a bit robbed. as per the culture they created the Bub and munny just didn’t hold the same allure as the almighty Dunny.
So good sport I am, and always with the need to go overboard, or challenge myself I went out and bought my own 8" Dunny to customize, and some others. all together I donated 6 separate pieces to Kidrobot to give away on each one of their social networks and blogs. and again was slightly insulted when they asked me if I minded mailing them out to the winners myself. I minded. In fact all I got in return for my efforts and year of getting pushed back, and around, was 50 or so new followers on twitter.
A little while after this had passed, the Kidrobot NY store hit me up and asked me if I would like to put some customs in their store. I have heard some horror stories from customizers about getting paid by them, so I was a bit wary... even more so when I found out they had just bumped their side of the commission up to 60% percent.. on something I spent a couple weeks of my life on, and all they have to do is put on a shelf. but.... sucker that I am I was still down.... I had just done a solo show and had plenty of obligations already in progress so I asked them to send me all the paper work and I would make them something when I could.
After a brainstorming session with my inspiring girlfriend, the idea for the Kidrobot New York Store was born. This would be a piece just for them, uniquely and specially for them. for the memories and nostalgia they have created in my head along with what I imagine would be most of the people still reading this story. what better to honor Kidrobot then a mini version of their own self in the form of their own toy. They would have to love this idea I thought to myself. Foolish me. recently upon finishing what would be one of my most detailed painstaking toy customs to date and all in honor of the big looming juggernaut of our world. I have even started concocting plans to do all 5 of the other Kidrobot retail stores and send each one a Dunny of it's own image. I contacted the New York store with some pics of my offering and word of my signed paperwork. which I usually avoid dealing with if possible and told them happy new year, hope everything is great, I hope you enjoy.. I was contacted back with a response to hold on to it. they can no longer accept customs to the store. and that even the store manager would have to get special permission to accept the piece to even display it.
Ohhh … allright… well guess what Kidrobot... Go fuck yourself....
I'm not sure if I'm upset, frustrated, annoyed, disappointed, sad or just over it. but I definitely am not going through the efforts of figuring this latest business out. or waiting it out so you can get more then half the earnings on a piece I got carpel tunnel making. I am putting it up on my own site available for sale around 12:00pm Saturday Jan 5th, 2013 for $500.00 us dollars... free shipping. and the first person willing to push the buy button gets this one of a kind, never to be another, 8" custom hand sculpted and painted Kidrobot store Dunny. And that brings to the end of my version of a epic back story… may it be a rant, a look at this side of the designer toy looking glass, some kinda I don’t know what, for artitsts just discovering vinyl toys, or a shared experience for those of you who were there with me.
And as for me and you Kidrobot...as I smoke a blunt and consider if I should possibly jeopardize future opportunities by posting this story... I'm not sure what the future holds... what once was innocent and wonderful has become bitter and left a bad taste... are you really trying to lift artists up and spread new ideas and artwork into the world? are you just a pimp milking new eager artists for their designs and hard work? are you confused and don't know what you are yourself? I’m confused… and tired of trying to figure it out.
Sincerely - Task One
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