NEW DELHI: As we reminisce about our childhood, we find ourselves transported to a whimsical world of toys, cartoons, and sitcoms—a world that transcends age and persists through adulthood. Cartoons such as Batman, The Transformers, among others, made the 90s kids’ childhood so much better.
The impact of such elements from pop culture continues to inspire artists all over the world, including Amrit Pal Singh—a 33-year-old visual artist based in Delhi—whose works are heavily influenced by toys, cartoons, and memes.
Delving into his artistic journey, Singh revealed that his love for toys played a significant role in his creative expression. “Toys had a big influence on me while growing up. But as a teenager, I was told not to play with them anymore. I think this translated into exploring this medium [of toys] when I began expressing myself artistically,” he explained.
Singh’s love for toys is evident at The Toy Face Tour, which is presented by Method, an independent creative art space in Mumbai, as well as Hefty.art, a curator-driven marketplace delivering premium non-fungible token (NFT) collections and phygital art, at STIR Art Gallery, Chattarpur. This is Singh’s first solo exhibition—it opened on April 28 and will continue till May 7—and coincides with his 100th NFT drop.
Upon interacting with Singh, we learnt that his project, Toy Face commenced amid the pandemic in 2020, when people wanted a new digital representation of themselves. “It started as an illustration project, but later transformed into an art project,” he said.
Pop culture artistry
As we walked around this exhibition space, we were amazed by the miniature “toy rooms” Singh has created. These isometric drawings of rooms have been inspired by nature, art, and cinema, and feature the artist’s unique style that draws inspiration from pop and internet culture, memes, and more. The Toy Face Tour features seven new artworks along with 93 sold pieces.
On exploring further, we came across an intriguing toy face—of legendary Indian artist MF Husain. Speaking about that specific work, Singh shared, “It was a great collaboration because MF Husain is one of the biggest Indian artists and he has a big influence in Delhi and India.”
Reimagining digital art
Singh has also collaborated with Mark Watts, the 72-year-old illustrator of the original G1 Transformer.
“I created a Transformer toy room where his art was used as posters, bedsheets, and everything else. The collaboration was only possible because of NFT and the internet, as we did not meet physically. However, we spoke over Zoom on several occasions, ideated together, and then created this Transformers toy room”, shared Singh.
He also added that an entire toy room he made was based on his illustrations, “I recreated the furniture, set, textile, little decor, sculptures, a giant Rubik’s Cube, and Tetris. We created an interesting installation with 500 slinkies. I call the series Toy Room, and while it doesn’t mean the room is filled with toys, the medium is translated through toys and colours. It is like a collector’s toy room.”
Giving us an insight into this project, Singh concluded, “The purpose of my exhibition was to showcase what digital art could represent. The traditional art world feels it’s only on a screen or created digitally. However, with this show, I wanted to showcase that it’s just how you view and present it, and it can be really interesting, especially for people to express themselves.”
