Tobias Wong, 1974-2010
Today we learned that Tobias Wong passed away early last Sunday morning, May 30 2010. He was 35.
Our regular readers know that on this blog we normally keep things pretty light. We draw on pictures to make them better, we make up fake trends, and we barely get let into shows to “review.” The strategy here is something that we felt was underrepresented in art & design writing: take a passion for a serious, academic topic and present it in the conversational style that we use in our actual lives. That concept-based objects can be both inclusive and taken seriously, and that the public is smarter than they’re usually given credit for. They don’t need more pedantic curators. What they need are friends that respect their intelligence and that can lead them toward real ideas in an engaging way.
Tobias was one of the people who made us think this was possible.
Tobias’ creative work was a constant source of inspiration, and that was the idea. In a design landscape where much success can be had using juxtaposition & irony without conceptual backing, he held strong that “leaving room for meaning is a cheap cop-out—the best designers/artists have always been focused on what and how they want to be read. Leaving room for meaning is for those not so confident with their ideas.” Again and again, he managed to present us with objects that hooked us with beauty, challenged us intellectually, and sent us a tiny shiver of danger. Aric Chen put it well in the press release:
… [Wong] held a mirror to our desires and absurdities; upended the hierarchy between design and art, and the precious and the banal; and helped redefine collaboration and curation as creative practices. Working within what he termed a “paraconceptual” framework, Wong prompted a reevaluation of everything we thought we knew about design: its production, its psychological resonance, its aesthetic criteria, its means of distribution, its attachment to provenance, its contextualization and its manner of presentation. Wong was a keen observer, an original mind, a brilliant prankster, and an unerring friend.
Thank you, Tobi. You will be missed.
-Andrew
