Alice Wang is a graduate from the
Royal College of Art, a place with a fierce reputation for producing world-class graduates, who can perform in an impressive range of media. Listing eight unique services ranging from Product to Electronics and Programming, Wang leads with a thematic range of Products, which all explore the weirdly real phenomena of
Commodity Love.
She teases out the anxiety of technological obsession and creepy reliance, baldly cutting in one "I love my dog more than my husband" and "I love my blackberry more than my girlfriend" on another. The fact that love remains the definitive emotion in all the products is reassuring, the cleverness in the products is messing with the other end... Why can't we sit down to a romantic dinner with the dog, give him a dashing lapel-bib while he dines from his custom tilted plate and wine glass..
The simple answer is the forbidden intimacy which all these activities are typically warming up to, but the innocence with which these products are presented is the kicker: how dare we presume anything more than a reciprocal love between owner and pet.
Alice Wang's work is well presented on her personal site
here, including
Chairs for the Dysfunctional, and of course the
Leash, pictured.