THE ART OF IMPERFECTION

Artist Varagun 'Andy' Chongthanapipat explores distortions of his Mushkin art toy at a unique exhibition

- STORY: SUWITCHA CHAIYONG

When Varagun “Andy” Chongthanapipat, better known as Mr. Kreme, designed the character Mushkin for production as an art toy, he discovered that the final version looked different from his original design. Surprisingly, that distorted edition of Mushkin sold out. That made Varagun question if collectors prefer the distorted edition or the original?

With this question in mind, Varagun created the solo exhibition “The Bootleg Show: An Exploration Of Originals And Alterations”, to examine the issue.

“Due to limited time, the finished Mushkin was launched without design approval. Ilater discovered that the design was changed during the 3D art toy making process. Then, the design altered again due to limitations encountered during the manufacturing production. I understand that the final product will usually never come out like the original idea, but the distorted Mushkin was 30% different from the original design and yet it sold out,” said Varagun.

In “The Bootleg Show”, Varagun invited viewers to become co-creators. Viewers were encouraged to draw Mushkin from their memory. He then reimagined and transformed the visitors’ drawings into artwork of various forms such as paintings, sculptures and video installations. As a result, the line between original and distortion began to blend opening a dialogue between intention and unexpected change.

“Before this exhibition, I would create the design and other people would produce the artwork and art toys based on my design. In ‘The Bootleg Show, viewers were the ones who drew the artwork. I used clay to model their drawings. After that, I used a dryer to blow the clay until it became an artistic distortion. I used clay because it was the very first material that I used to create my art toys,” said Varagun.