The Pokemon Company has seemingly caught the art collab bug. Earlier this month, they teamed up with skateboard craftsman Bear Walker to produce some sick custom boards, and a few days later, they announced a line of adorable Eevee and Eeveelution figures that will be made by Funko. Starting today, The Pokemon Company has joined forces with another artist to produce actual, bona fide art installations.
According to a press release, The Pokemon Company is collaborating with American artist Daniel Arsham to produce “fictional archaeology” sculptures of Pokemon icons. The concept behind the upcoming art pieces is that people in the future unearth the weathered and decayed remains of Pokemon statues, and Arsham depicts what those hypothetical anachronistic sculptures would look like.
The collaborative Pokemon art pieces will be large bronze statues that, much like Arsham’s previous works, feature missing chunks that simulate natural wear and tear over thousands of years, as well as growing crystals that fill the gaps. Moreover, judging by an associated video, Arsham’s work will potentially include famous characters such as Eevee, Pikachu, Charmander, a trainer (either Ash or Red), Jigglypuff, and Mewtwo.
Arsham is a longtime Pokemon fan, so he jumped at the opportunity to create sculptures of modern pop icons to help “shift people’s understanding about time in general.” The CEO of The Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, mirrored Arsham’s sentiment:
Pokemon evolved as a brand by embracing new technologies and collaborating with partners from new fields ranging from data communication systems and geolocation-related technologies to partners in fashion and art. I’m delighted to welcome Daniel Arsham as our collaboration partner. Through his work, my wish is for people around the world to ‘dig deep’ into their imaginations and think about what Pokemon would look like in a thousand years.
We can expect more info about the collaboration sometime later this spring.
