Kaneuji Teppei

This is a commissioned work created especially for #TTTOP. The artist has generously agreed to donate a significant share of the hammer price of this lot to the Asian Cultural Council in addition to the portion of profits that Sotheby’s donate for all lots in this auction.

Landslide: It's Raining T.O.P

Avalanche #1 & #2 (Lots 608 and 609) are two specially commissioned pieces that respond powerfully, both aesthetically and conceptually, to the massively overwhelming phenomenon of T.O.P's fame and worldwide following. Kaneuji Teppei's acclaimed series White Discharge is fittingly customised to feature multiple small figures of T.O.P, equating the megastar singer and rapper with other symbols of mass consumerism and contemporary pop culture. The architectonic constructions heap together a number of tiny T.O.P figurines from his single - Doom Dada together with plastic everyday objects, action figures and popular manga characters such as Doraemon and Charlie Brown, constituting an overwhelming bricolage of estranged elements. The "white discharge", or plastic resin, is then poured over the avalanche of objects, dripping down and hardening into monstrous stalactites. The enveloping resin constitutes a signature uncanny aesthetic that at once confronts and fully embraces the ambiguity and meaninglessness of obsessive contemporary consumerism. Specially commissioned for the present sale, the works put forth a powerful yet humorous commentary on T.O.P's immense popularity as one of the biggest music icons of our generation.

Artist Biography

Kaneuji Teppei (b. 1978, Japan) graduated from the Kyoto City University of Arts with a major in Sculpture in 2001 and completed his Masters in Sculpture in the same institution in 2003. The artist seeks out symbol-object relationships and intentionally smothers their projected meanings by re-contextualising everyday objects and twisting and assembling them in unconventional ways. Kaneuji's art explores the separation between purpose and form; some have interpreted his work to be a comment on the hyper-consumerism of the Japanese society whereas others see his work as a summoning of dread and unease in the most unexpected of places. Kaneuji has held solo exhibitions around Asia in Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai. His works are also in the collections of the Yokohama Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.