Known for his collaborations with a plethora of pop stars, including Julia Stone, Rosalía, and Lil Nas X, Filip Custic has turned his penchant for visuals into a tour de force demonstration of his skills across a variety of mediums. From prints and wearables to performance and installation, Custic has embraced an anything goes approach to his first solo show, Human Product which premieres several new pieces alongside previous work at the Parco Museum in Tokyo, running from now until April 24th.
Custic’s indelible multidisciplinary approach hones in on the relationship between humans and technology, and with human product, he invites us to look even more closely at internet culture and how our identity is shaped by the interactions between our mind, body, and technology. It's a display that is both whimsical and unnerving, the emphasis on manicured and beautiful mannequins, somewhat dainty and sensual as well as lifeless and threatening. In Custic’s universe, these representations of humanity play with the idea of our ability to update ourselves aesthetically, a bit like an operating system (OS) update.
There are hints of dadaism and absurdity to the works, while maintaining a perverted sense of reality, at least of the filmy and sticky reality that saturates the internet, where emphasis on attractiveness is converted into a sense of worth. This conversion, of physical looks into capital is a key emphasis of Custic’s work, aiming to explore how capitalism and the culture it spurns works to make us into commodities, our existence gaining value if it can become monetised, he explains; “in human product I want to reflect on our tendency to become a sort of commodities that we update from time to time, under this self-imposed idea of being profitable.”
With iconic imagery of halos and thorns, Custic harks back to medieval and religious iconography, as the beautiful people he moulds hold each other and take in their status, refusing to look away from the viewer. They look at each other, and refuse to break eye contact, exposed but also operating to expose our own inhibitions and perceptions of self. Entrapped in cubes, wires, and cages of computers and screens, they are both trapped and on a higher plane. Incredibly imaginative, it's hard to look away from this grim display of excess at its breaking point.
The exhibition’s poignant critique of capitalism and online life is interesting in that it is coming from inside the house, as Custic is a key player in the vanguard of celebrity, one that places with plenty to examine, it's set to be an essential show for our new age.
There are hints of dadaism and absurdity to the works, while maintaining a perverted sense of reality, at least of the filmy and sticky reality that saturates the internet, where emphasis on attractiveness is converted into a sense of worth. This conversion, of physical looks into capital is a key emphasis of Custic’s work, aiming to explore how capitalism and the culture it spurns works to make us into commodities, our existence gaining value if it can become monetised, he explains; “in human product I want to reflect on our tendency to become a sort of commodities that we update from time to time, under this self-imposed idea of being profitable.”
With iconic imagery of halos and thorns, Custic harks back to medieval and religious iconography, as the beautiful people he moulds hold each other and take in their status, refusing to look away from the viewer. They look at each other, and refuse to break eye contact, exposed but also operating to expose our own inhibitions and perceptions of self. Entrapped in cubes, wires, and cages of computers and screens, they are both trapped and on a higher plane. Incredibly imaginative, it's hard to look away from this grim display of excess at its breaking point.
The exhibition’s poignant critique of capitalism and online life is interesting in that it is coming from inside the house, as Custic is a key player in the vanguard of celebrity, one that places with plenty to examine, it's set to be an essential show for our new age.
Filip Custic's exhibition Human Product is now on view at Tokyo's Parco Museum until April 24th.
Filip significa amante de los caballos, 2020. Filip Custic.
Filip wearing erich borchert, 2018. Filip Custic.
Bolso de pantalla transparente 23:45, 2022.
Estudio de guerrero derrotado, 2021. Filip Custic.
Prisma humano, 2018. Filip Custic.
Bolso de pantalla 12:34, 2021.
never-ending under-construction, 2020. Filip Custic.
virtualhypermetasuperultramegaconnected, 2022.