Fan Theories and the Art of PLAY

A few years ago I began to explore ideas of 'play' in my sculptures, which has naturally lead me to the use and creation of toys, or 'bootlegs' which is the process of taking certain aspects of ready made toys, and adapting them or customising them to create something else. The trend/ practice started when independent toy makers started making action figures for TV shows and films that wouldn't usually have action figures, those lesser-known, niche/ cult following films that really deserve action figures, but the demand is simply not there for the larger companies to take it on.

There's been some debate as to whether bootlegging is an art form or not... I believe its in the context, as with all contemporary art...

Anyway, back to 'play'...

I worked on a series of sculptures called 'Barcode Babies', which started as a project for @Plastic_baby_co an innovative company creating technologically advanced parenting solutions. I was initially hired to sculpt a series of babies that would then be developed into the 'I-Child', an artificial intelligence droid in the form of a child, where you can turn the sound down, turn it off... you know... all the rubbish bits of parenting, taken away.. I worked on the pieces for a while before the project was shut down and so I took the sculptures and created the 'Barcode babies' sculptural series which was exhibited online during the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic.

There's actually a horrible interview I did with a terrible art magazine, the interview went south, but they still published it.. I haven't shared it before because I hate the magazine, but I do talk about the Plastic Baby Co. project in detail: flow.page/highsnout I think you can download the whole issue there with my interview in it..

Anyway... The Barcode babies series was the first time I took sculptures and played with them, as in I found a new sense of exploration and a fresh breathe of air to be honest, I'd always been very particular before that.. but just taking one piece and placing it next to another really changed the meaning of the pieces, creating a completely new piece in the process, idea generation hasn't been the same since.

I was particularly interested in these pieces I created, and how the female character doesn't change at all, yet what's happening in the background completely changes the feel of the female character, her attitude, the movement that can be felt through her, it's a new meaning. This was an incredible discovery for me.

I used this same process in this piece..

I took the 'La La' figure who I've called 'Dead Battery', a conversation around our mobile phones/ tech being our lifelines... and I took the Han Solo figure with the Dipsy head, which I've called 'Fan Theory'. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I love all the lore, conspiracies and the theories around the films. I particularly enjoy the idea of Darth Jar Jar.. So This piece is a homage to that side of art... the side of content creation that the creator doesn't have control over.. I want to embrace this side with the Sculpt Factory.

Originally the Fan Theory piece was a side character, he doesn't appear in the test movie I made of The Land Where Content Is Made..

But after moving the pieces to this new background, tying it into the factory theme it has inspired, the piece seemed to work really well with the new found context through play..

I've placed him front and centre, just as much part of the world as the other characters. I think this act of placing this character in there with the rest questions fan theories and fan fiction, is fan fiction an extension of the artists original work?

I want to play with these ideas in the FaKeTRiX, from the word go I want to create a world large enough with enough ideas planted, for the world to be explored from many different angles..

Thanks For Clocking in with me today..

See you on your next shift,

Adam