Necklace, Murdered Skull

INDULGENCES is the result of the collaboration in 2005 between Tobias Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid. The artists dipped objects, most of them related to drug use, in 24 carat gold before selling them on the streets of New York and in retail stores. This use of gold and the series’ subtitle - “for the man who has absolutely everything” - underlines the intention to playfully critique the cultural obsession with luxury and consumption in the US during the early 2000s. Through the relationship between the INDULGENCES objects and drug consumption, Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid were equating the ever-expanding market of unnecessary luxury items with an addiction to conspicuous consumption.





Some of the most striking objects of this series are the Gold Pills which are filled with gold leaf so that once ingested, as Tobias would say, “your shit will sparkle.”1 As early as 1998 Wong had already made his Silver Pills, which were identical but filled with silver, and he translated them into gold for the INDULGENCES series. There is a strong sense of symbolism here as gold inflates an item’s monetary value and simultaneously transforms it into a luxury good. Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid highlighted the absurdity of consumer culture’s obsession with gold by combining it with something which stands at the complete opposite end of the value spectrum: human feces. This makes explicit the pointless and capricious nature of luxury consumption.


In addition, the form of this piece, small gleaming gold pills, also holds references to drug use, suggesting that they can have the addictive effect of temporarily satisfying the consumer’s insatiable desire for ownership. The Gold Pills exemplify well the underlying idea behind the INDULGENCES series: portraying consumption of luxury goods as simultaneously unnecessary and inevitable. The INDULGENCES products were commercially and critically successful as they were sold across the US and went all the way to Paris and Tokyo. Ju$t Another Rich Kid even continued the series by collaborating with brands like ABSOLUT or Nike and making limited editions of iconic products such as the No. 5 Nike shoes which were covered in gold.2 Furthermore, some of the Indulgences objects were acquired by the SFMOMA and displayed at the 2008 exhibition “246 and Counting” curated by Henry Urbach.








Other INDULGENCES objects in the Cooper-Hewitt collection include a BIC pen cap and a bill holder. Both dipped in gold, these pieces were respectively titled Coke Spoon 01 and Coke Spoon 03. They highlight Tobias Wong’s practice of making ‘ready-designed’ objects, his own modern iteration of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘ready-mades.’ Wong would take an already designed object and add an element to it, resulting in the creation of a new design piece which alongside its aesthetic value, was invested with novel conceptual meanings. However, an understanding of the conceptual commentary embedded within the INDULGENCES series is not necessary to appreciate them as objects. Their visual appeal is strong enough in its own right; it suffices in making them attention-worthy. Wong characterized this approach to design as being “para-conceptual,” meaning that the conceptual value of his objects is not more important than their aesthetic aspect.




Footnotes:

1 See Tobias Wong’s webiste, silver pill page: http://www.brokenoff.com/silver.html

2 See: https://justanotherrichkid.com/collections/indulgences/products/indulgences-no-5?variant=4578782532

Necklace, Murdered Skull; Designed by Tobias Wong (1974–2010); Collaborator: Ju$t Another Rich Kid (Ken Courtney); cast bronze, gold, cubic zirconia; H x W x D (pendant): 0.6 × 0.6 × 1.3 cm (1/4 × 1/4 × 1/2 in.) H x W x D (box): 2.2 × 4.4 × 5.1 cm (7/8 in. × 1 3/4 in. × 2 in.); The Tobias Wong Collection, Gift of Phyllis Chan and Gordon Wong; 2024-4-24-a,b