Erwin Windu Pranata

My works consist of three series; two of them are series of objects made from iron plates shaped into capsules that are able to maintain a balance thanks to the ballasts within them; inspired by the Mighty Bean toy. The capsules are separated by certain symbols and signs, for example animal figures, my face, several characters and icons of popular products. Meanwhile, the third series consists of packaging visuals and toy advertising, printed on aluminum plates.

Various lures about the most ideal life arise due to imaginations, a variety of empty earthly delights that seem so pleasing, able to satisfy the unquenchable desires. I am interested in how toys reflect the self so well in the social life that I have experienced and am experiencing at the moment, i.e. in relation to my existence as an artist and in my various travails in life that have shaped me into how I am. Life is like a playing field; the artist plays, becomes a player, and becomes a toy; the subject becomes an object. Meanwhile, works of art, to me, are like objects of play whose entire auratic values, luxury, and supremacy are returned to their fundamental character of “it’s for fun; just for fun.”

Toys are objects used for playing; they are closely related to the world of play especially in childhood. One cannot, however, deny the fact that adults are also playing with them. In different cultures of the world, toys have important meanings in our cultural lives, in that they train us to be better in social relationships, in our physical functions; they train our minds and bodies; they decorate our homes and shape the identity of the one playing them. Still, they are founded on pleasure, entertainment, and leisure. Toys might become collectible objects because of their uniqueness, production errors, and a range of incidents that have made the toys have certain unique values, or perhaps the toys are specially produced in a limited number for collectors, contrary to the popular toys that are massively produced.

Toys and playing are closely related to human desire for the real world in which we live; they mimic what happens in the world; they are copies of world that are not real. It is like the children who play imaginatively with their toys, which might take the form of any objects, then treat such objects as a means to achieve their dreams: having a grandiose house, a luxury car, wealth; becoming famous, successful business people, a strong attraction for the opposite sex; and having a range of status reflecting great success in the society. Such an attitude is reflective of the fundamental principle of the sensations of pleasure, of playing repeatedly with toys, with objects, to gain the same pleasure as the previous time, so that it gradually becomes a habit. Such repetitions are then applied in the real daily routines. One cannot deny the fact that the culture of commodities is inextricably related to the toys that are available in the market today. Such a culture is related to an incessantly-renewed lifestyle; the toy becomes a fetish object, an object of commodity, a product that haunts humans and our desires.