Want to be buried in a giant wooden coffin that looks like a Coke bottle?

Coffin artist Paa Joe is the guy who can make that happen. He crafts fantasy wood "proverb coffins" (aka as abebuu adekai in his culture) out of his shop in Ghana. He's considered the grandfather of the fantasy coffin trade and his work is exhibited in museums worldwide. But hard times fell on his business.

Paa Joe & The Lion is the 2017 documentary that tells the story of how he and his son are rebuilding the family legacy together. It's now available to stream on Amazon (free with Prime). It's really inspiring!

Paa Joe dreams of his bygone days — bringing money home in briefcases and work being shipped to galleries the world over. Now, he sleeps as the cars hurtle passed. There are no customers, no tourists — there are no coffins to make. His son, Jacob, dreams too, he dreams of returning his father to his glory days and rebuilding the family legacy together. Over the next four years they stand side-by-side, conquering love and death and embracing a life changing opportunity to travel to the UK to undertake an artist residency. It is the start of their future together — master and son... Paa Joe & The Lion

Here's a look at some of his pieces:

via john nash

Cacao pod coffin image via akhenatenator

via Allison Meier

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Rhino fantasy coffin

A post shared by Paa Joe (@paajoecoffins) on Aug 27, 2018 at 10:48am PDT

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A mighty oak tree has broken leaving a legacy behind.

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Using old toothbrushes, nutrition facts, electronics, vintage beer pull tabs, light bulbs and other junk, pop artist Jason Mecier has created a portrait of Pee-wee Herman.

According to Pee-wee himself, some of the materials Mecier used were inspired by the pop culture icon's first film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The toothbrushes? Those were prompted by the "mad dog" scene at the beginning of the movie. Remember when Pee-wee poured the Mr. T cereal? That's where the nutrition facts come into play in this piece.

He then used the electronics and light bulbs to match the grey in Pee-wee's a-little-too-small suit and to make that bowtie pop, he added red glitter.

This is a brand new piece by Mecier. He created it to include in his new book Pop Trash. It will be shown for the first time at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, beginning at the book's launch party on August 3.

(Pee-wee Herman) Read the rest

Fashion designer Virgil Abloh has been working on pieces for an upcoming IKEA collection. One of the first pieces to be unveiled is this pop-art rug that looks like an oversized shopping receipt.

Dezeen writes:

During IKEA's annual conference today, the brand revealed the first official photos for the upcoming Markerad collection, which has been in the works for over a year and is aimed at millennials...

The Markerad collection is due to hit stores in 2019. Other pieces in the range include slogan-covered rugs and Abloh's take on the IKEA Frakta bag.

In early May, HYPEBEAST shared this video of some of the other pieces in Abloh's collection for IKEA, including his slogan-covered rugs and that modified Frakta bag:

My first thoughts on the rug: I kind of love it but it's not long enough. IKEA receipts are like a mile long. Maybe it should've been a hallway runner instead.

image via Dezeen Read the rest

I spy (a brand new junk portrait of) Pee-wee Herman at the :29 mark

Exciting news: Jason Mecier, the artist who makes celebrity mosaic portraits in junk (or other objects like candy or cereal) has announced his first book. It's called Pop Trash: The Amazing Art of Jason Mecier and it's due out July 17, 2018.

...Here is Amy Sedaris assembled from her own trash, David Bowie made out of cosmetics and feathers, Snoop Dogg sculpted out of weed, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus crafted out of candy, Kevin Bacon bespoke in bacon, and many, many more. Fun process shots offer behind-the-scenes insights into the meticulous work required to create these candy-colored—and literally trashy—spotlights (how much licorice does it take to make Harry Potter?). With mesmerizing tributes to icons ranging from Stevie Nicks to Farrah Fawcett to Honey Boo Boo, this gallery of the famous and infamous is a visual treat for fans of pop culture and pop art alike.

You can pre-order it now for $29.95.

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In 1966, John Wilcock contributed to ASPEN MAGAZINE, an arts project dubbed "The Magazine in a Box" for its unconventional format. This same issue featured design throughout by Andy Warhol and the first single to ever be released for the Velvet Underground, entitled "Loop".

Here are two great tastes that taste great together: Fast food and furniture.

European design firm Studio Job teamed up with Italian home goods and furniture house Seletti to create furniture fashioned after fast food.

Designboom writes:

at maison et objet 2017 in paris, seletti and studio job are bringing fast food to the fair. a hot dog and hamburger — archetypal images of american pop-culture — are transformed into actual furnishings, giving rise to the ‘UN_LIMITED EDITIONS’ collection. the debut of the series marks the italian brand’s introduction to the world of upholstered furniture, amalgamating studio job’s irreverent attitude and penchant for playfulness, with seletti’s accessible affordability.

Yes, I would like fries (lamp? pillow? rug?) with that.

images by Loek Blonk via designboom Read the rest

Japanese manga artist Junko Mizuno is known for her dizzying mix of everything from Japanese cute culture to erotic and pin-up art to religious and fairy tale imagery. In TRIAD, an absolutely stunning 16-page book, she brings three of her characters to life in 3D pop-up form — the Nurse, the Witch, and the Wrestler. The trio appears in five pop-up spreads, Ocean, Serpent, Triptych, Mansion, and Tree.

There is no text to the book, and no explicit narrative that I could discern. But there’s so much going on here, so much whimsy and weirdness, and some very clever use of pop-up book technology. This is really a piece of interactive art exploiting the book format. If you’re a fan of Junko Mizuno, Japanese manga and pop art, or of pop-up books in general, you will likely be as blown away by TRIAD as I was.

This little video flick-through by Poposition Press will give you a better idea of the blazing eye-candy to be had in TRIAD.

TRIAD by Junko Mizuno Poposition Press 2016, 16 pages, 11.5 x 9.0 x 1.5 inches, Hardcover $50 Buy one at Popsition

See sample pages from this book at Wink. Read the rest

My brother Carl Hamm (Twitter), who is a club and radio DJ and a collector of obscure but excellent global stuff, shares the images in this post and says: Read the rest

A friend of Boing Boing introduced me to the work of artist Kii Arens this weekend. We visited his studio for a karaoke party. It was great. I love his work. You can buy it in reasonably affordable poster form, through his website: lalalandposters.com. I would like one of everything, please. Kii is on Twitter and Facebook. (Thanks, Alex!) Read the rest