Little is known about Japanese artist trio three. The young, anonymous artist collective utilizes toys and other childhood ephemera to create provocative installations and sculptures. Action figures and rubber figurines are melted into fleshy masses. The artists create complex, geometric forms out of the liquified toys, forming them into patters that alternate distinguishable characters’ faces and anonymous, tan blobs where limbs and bodies used to be. Micro elements accumulate into overwhelming conglomerations that challenge the viewer’s eye to distinguish their many details.
As children, many of us played with dolls or action figures and used them to express ourselves through imaginary narratives. three’s destruction of children’s playthings has something inherently violent about it, yet the bright, familiar pop culture artifacts they employ make their work perversely enjoyable to observe.
