Casting Shadows by Coarse Toys

Coarse Toys make poetry out of plastic, so it’s not really a surprise that each edition is accompanied by a short, abstract story. It begins:

spreading warmth and innocence

A perfect dawn together. On a hilltop, the two friends sit in whispering silence. Bliss too good for words. A breath of air brushes past as the noop’s kite flutters high in the sky like a friendly giant.

Floating on hopes, they bask in the lazy spring heat. Blanket clouds disperse from above. The noop’s wavering sky paw! aligns with the gleaming sun, casting them into a sublime day shade.

A shimmering outline cuts around the edges of their soaring observer. Together the noop and nism pass back into the light, awakened. If only this moment would last forever.

Of course, the moment doesn’t last. Is the cast shadow the loss of innocence, growing up or growing apart? Mark and Sven leave the end of the story up to you. But as usual, they’ve thought through the details:

Slide open the heavy hand crafted cardboard box by pulling at the woven ‘noop’ and ‘nism’ tags. Uncover the box contents — two vinyl figures, the longing nism [4”] and huddled noop [7”]. Set up the fabric paw! kite, and let the noop hold the string tight in his hand. The paw! kite will float high in the sky [14”], casting his shadow onto the two torn friends. A set of c-o-a-r-s-e type leaves complete this scenery, full of desperation.

Casting Shadows is limited to 200 pieces for about ~$320 USD. This includes global airmail shipping. Coarse Toys have a habit of selling out immediately, so you might want to bookmark coarsehkg and be near your computer in advance of 7:59AM PST / 10:59AM EST on May 3rd (tomorrow) Hong Kong time. If it’s not in the cards (or the budget) for you this round, gaze longingly at this lovely animated gif, and check back on the blog tomorrow, when I’ll post an exclusive interview with Mark Landwehr of Coarse Toys.