PlaSeeBo (Bob Conge)

I founded PLASEEBO in 2005 as a shop dedicated to creating unique one of a kind collectible figures and designing original figures for Ultra Limited editions. I have often thought of toys as small sculpture. They are miniature interpretations of things that are unattainable in the "real" world. They enable a child to become General Patton directing the Third Army of die cast Dinky tanks through the dirt in his own back yard or allow an adult to time travel back to that moment in the back yard of his memory. This spurring of the imagination is certainly the stuff of Art. I call the way I build my figures "Frankensculpt", because they are cobbled together from unrelated parts in a sculpting process which breathes a new life into them. I like my figures to be edgy, quirky, punkish, dark, more like Franz Kafka than Walt Disney. Some times the work is inspired by my concern for what I see as deplorable human behavior such as our war in Iraq, which inspired my WAR figure or my anger over the unfair practices of Banks which resulted in my sculpting the " Bank America " piece. Other times it may bubble up from distant childhood memories or fears. Whatever the direction or medium of expression, the drive is to bring to life a personal vision in the form of a new figure. Bob Conge