Germany-based public art collective Inges Idee (Hans Hemmert, Axel Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt and Georg Zey) brings its whimsical art to Shanghai’s MixC World with two giant sculptures spanning multiple levels of the shopping venue. Each playful permanent piece incorporates elephants, the brand’s mascot of sorts, inspired by its Chinese name (‘萬象天地’) which references an idiom with an alternative/literal meaning of ‘Elephant World’. Inges Idee has collaborated with AllRightsReserved on miniature editions of both sculptures.
Up We Go! features an adolescent mid-stride, in a pink shirt, blue jeans, red cap and a green elephant backpack. With its exaggerated, long legs, the design plays on the verticality of MixC World— as seen in the environment shots.
Instead of hinting at Mixc’s elephant connection, Family Orchestra fully embraces the gentle giants with a pair of playful elephants, a large one looking down on a younger, smaller one. The musically themed design is inspired by the distinctive shapes of tubas and trombones. As with Up We Go!, the design lends itself to an installation spanning multiple stories.
Editions of 100, the miniature, mixed media editions of Up We Go! (HK$3925/~$500, 7.24″) and Family Orchestra (HK$3925/~$500, elephants: 8.82″ big, 4.72″ small ) will be available as a charity preorder on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 @ 8 PM PDT from DDT Store with shipping slated for October 2022. One-hundred percent of proceeds from the sales of the two editions will be donated to the Shanghai Charitable Foundation and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.
