Will humanity know when the singularity has arrived? This is a central question propelling the rise of young Hispanic-Croatian artist Filip Custic.
His works in response focused on the human body as a canvas, lavishing it with color, layering it with motifs from 20th century art and psychoanalysis, and fragmenting it with mirrors and screens. Often the results look like fantasy scenes composed for high-end fashion magazines and not by accident: the 30-year-old got her start in marketing working with the likes of vogue, SquireAnd QGand remains, perhaps surprisingly, not jaded by the creative potential of the commercial world.
Philippe Custic, virtualhypermetasuperultramegaconnected. Photo: Filip Custic, courtesy of Onkaos.
It is fitting, then, that one of Custic’s first solo exhibitions opened in a luxury shopping mall, the Parco Museum in Tokyo. The exhibition, “human product“, stages many of the founding works of the Madrid artist which present the body, most often his own, as a place of adjustment and improvement, like an operating system, as the ‘artist. Three new sculptural works place Custic in the context of collectible doll culture. Again, Custic thinks showcasing such works in Japan, the main developer of collectible dolls, makes Parco an ideal venue.
“In the show, I basically want people to experience new paradigms, new situations, so we can think about ‘human programming,'” Custic told Artnet News. “I would like to open a conversation centered on how consumer culture tries to turn us into ‘commodities’.”
In zzz (2023) and human product (2023), new works in which Custic reconstitutes himself into miniaturized dolls, he draws attention to the sleepy qualities of technologies, but not in the way one might expect. “I want to express the possibility of being able to sleep in the system and then wake up,” Custic said. “It’s a great pressure to be a human being and we have to look for moments of relaxation of our consciousness.”
This line of thought applies to the entire exhibition. In his “Bolso de Pantalla” series (2021), a collection of handbags with built-in displays that broadcast his own brand messaging, he highlights the idea that carrying a handbag turns a human into a walking advertisement , but not for revolutionary purposes.
“Consumer culture turns us into commodities,” Custic said. “Our existence is more valuable if it can be monetized.” Far from calls to reclaim our digital identities.
Installation view of “Human Product” at the Parco Museum, Tokyo. Photo courtesy Onkaos and Filip Custic.
Custic’s arrival in Japan marks the latest in a series of commercial breakthroughs for the artist. In 2018 he provided the visual theme for Catalan pop star Rosalía’s second album El mal querer. In a series of moving digital sculptures, Custic has portrayed Rosalía as a divine figure immersed in the worlds of modern spiritualism – think golden crucifixes, moon cycles and circles of energy all projected into scenes of dazzling brilliance. . He then created works to accompany musical projects for Julia Stone and Lil Nas X.
These projects have remained true to Custic’s Brilliant Aesthetics, repeating much-used symbols such as cracked mirrors and the fragmented body, but leaving aside technological considerations. There is little evidence that Custic made such a shift in his own work.
“It’s hard to separate the role of technology in my artistic practice and in my life,” he says. “Technology is the only innovative element of our time. I think we’ll look super-bionic in the future and wonder, ‘When did all this happen?’ Some would say that moment has already arrived.
See more images from the exhibit below.
Installation view of “Human Product” at the Parco Museum, Tokyo. Photo courtesy Onkaos and Filip Custic.
Filip Custic, “Bolso de pantalla” (2021). Photo: Filip Custic, courtesy of Onkaos.
Installation view of “Human Product” at the Parco Museum, Tokyo. Photo courtesy Onkaos and Filip Custic.
“human productis on display at Parco Museum, 15-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, through April 24.
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