Artist with a brand name has a big presence at 30th Street Station
Story Highlights
- A 16-foot-high fiberglass and metal sculpture will greet people hustling through 30th Street Station.
- 'Companion (Passing Through)' is the product of a former street artist known as KAWS.
- KAWS briefly worked as a Disney animator.
People hustling through 30th Street Station Thursday morning should be greeted by something completely unexpected - a 16-foot-high fiberglass and metal sculpture of a cartoony seated figure with its hands over its face.
There will be something vaguely familiar about the figure. Could it be the three-fingered hands? The white gloves? The knobby earlike fringe around the head? The bare pate?
All of the above speak to the world of cartoons in general and Disney characters in particular. And the figure itself, dubbedCompanion (Passing Through), is the product of a former street artist (who briefly worked as a Disney animator) known as KAWS.
From Disney to street art to clothing to merchandising and marketing, KAWS, 38, seems to catch the echo of things familiar in the media-saturated universe. He can legitimately be called a phenom, nowhere more so than in Japan, where his designs for "art toys" and clothing have attracted hoards of acquisitive followers. Young Americans are not far behind. They know the brand.
Harry Philbrick, director of the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, says KAWS has "successfully worked within the corporate system and now has come into the fine-art world."
The academy (in concert with Amtrak, overlords of 30th Street Station) is responsible for bringing KAWS to town, first with the public installation of Companion (Passing Through), which will be on display at 30th Street until May 14.
In the fall, the academy will unveil a KAWS sculpture for the facade of the historic Frank Furness building at Broad and Cherry Streets. The piece will be up for a year - with additional KAWS sculptures and paintings within the galleries. It will then be replaced by another commission from another artist in a series of planned annual installations.
KAWS (a.k.a. Brian Donnelly, born in Jersey City, N.J., now residing in Brooklyn) attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and launched his career with graffiti in New York and became known for his satiric raids aimed at corporate advertising on public telephone booths and bus shelters.
His street notoriety and cartoon props proved a plus when he began working up lines of toys and other merchandise for Japanese companies. A series of Companion toys have become super hot over the last decade. They feature Xs for eyes, Mickey Mouse hands and gloves, a clowny fringe. A closer look, however, reveals a subversive side to the figure, though it is often described as "lovable" in the media.
Companion may have begun as a toy (a pint-sized edition of the 30th Street version has just been released), but the work has literally ballooned in size. It has graced a handful of public settings, and even made an appearance filled with helium in New York's Thanksgiving Day parade.
"I appreciate the different opportunity for communication through all [different] outlets," KAWS said in response to an e-mail Monday. He's on the road and hasn't had time for interviews. "I like seeing how the work adjusts to the different settings; it's a totally new experience each time we install it at a new location."
KAWS has said that he came up with the figure about 14 years ago, after settling on Mickey Mouse as ripe for a "takedown."
But Companion is not so much a takedown as a dark underside. That knobby fringe? Not ears, not stylized hair, but knob ends of crossed bones. The Xs for his eyes may not be pearls or coins, but they have the finality of death to them.
Whether that funereal subtext comes out in a cavernous room shared with a memorial to the dead of World War II remains to be seen.
Philbrick says the placement was intentional only in so far as "I wanted to find a really visible place" for KAWS.
"We'll set up a dialogue, no doubt about it," Philbrick says, referring toCompanion and the war memorial at 30th Street. "There will definitely be a visual dialogue between the two pieces, one of soldiers ascending to heaven with the assistance of angels, the other a figure with his face buried in his hands."
KAWS wrote that he is intrigued by the placement.
"I think it's an interesting relationship to have Companion (Passing Through) across from Walker Hancock's memorial work," he wrote. "The relationship is not something I considered when creating this work, but I would imagine the context might invite the viewer to think about the consequence of actions."
Contact culture writer Stephan Salisbury at 215-854-5594, ssalisbury@phillynews.com, or @SPSalisbury on Twitter
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