Toi Cowboy

Toi Cowboy is a life-size figure of a cowboy. The cowboy is made of solid steel bar. Powder-coated in red, he stands on a rounded steel plate resembling a plastic toy figure commonly manufactured in Asia for the American market in the 20th century. The red plastic-like color of Toi Cowboy replicates the primary colors commonly used for the plastic toys of the mid-20th century. Many of these toys were made in China and Japan based on North American culture and iconography. This piece is about the complex relationship of culture and values. 

Toi Cowboy is spelled “T” “O” “I” as opposed to the play object “T” “O” “Y” the word “toi” is Japanese for “question”. Toys become significant objects of symbolic play. As children age, the symbolism and nature of play with each object alters, reinforcing values and beliefs which lead to new and different toys. For better or worse, the toys we play with as children inform the culture we live in as adults. In the United States there are more guns than people. Does the lone cowboy reinforce a gun culture, or self-reliant individualism?   

Toi Cowboy takes a seemingly insignificant three inch plastic toy and enlarges it to human scale. The construction technique adds transparency and shadow. The plastic of a toy becomes the steel bars of a cage or the scaffold of a culture. The piece retains a playful quality in one light transforming to a menacing image in another. The viewer looks at and through Toi Cowboy elicits questions through a confrontation with our collective cultural identity.