KAWS Holiday Space
For Kaws Holiday Space, COMPANION is donating an astronaut's suit and launching a sounding balloon 41.5 kilometres into the stratosphere. After reaching ultra-high speeds, COMPANION punctuated its adventure with a 2-hour weightless walk in uninhabited space before returning to Earth. The whole exploration process took around 8 hours, from preparation for take-off to departure and final landing. The event was recorded with a 360-degree panoramic video camera, which captured this historic moment for COMPANION marking its twentieth year of existence.
The works are available in Gold, Black and Silver. They are made of polyurethane.
They measure 30 cm in height. They have become some of the most sought-after figurines, and are now trading at over €2,000 each. Their value continues to rise year on year.
In response to the upsurge in fake figurines, All Right Reserved, the sculpture's publisher, has introduced a new authentication system.
The Kaws Holiday Space sculpture was the first to include an authentication chip in its packaging. It can be scanned on a smartphone, using the ARR (AllRightsReserved ltd) application, and authenticated directly (or not).
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New York street artist Kaws emerged from the graffiti scene in the 1990s. A young artist influenced by pop art galleries, he began his career as a graffiti artist, penciling advertising posters for major brands on the streets of New York. Since the 2000s, he has produced some 50 small sculptures, featuring his most significant large-scale works of art (often shown in temporary exhibitions), and of course his most popular characters (Companion, Chum, BFF, Accomplice etc.). Particularly popular with collectors and contemporary art enthusiasts, these figurines have the advantage of being a very reasonably priced way to start a collection and enter the artist's world. They are generally published in limited editions of 500 copies (according to the artist), and they are edited in collaboration with a manufacturer who often also handles marketing, sales and distribution worldwide. Mostly made of vinyl material, these works of art resist ageing very well, but you should avoid exposing them to direct sunlight for long periods. It might cause a slight discoloration of the sculpture. Each version of the figurine, or art toy, has its own specially designed packaging, comprising a polystyrene receptacle with protective film, and a cardboard box with embossing. You have to keep the original packaging carefully as it is one of the most important authentication features of these sculptures. The Holiday Space figurines were released in August 2020. They are now among the artist's most emblematic and iconic figures.
