🛍️ Chicago artist Thomas Kong turns packaged waste into art in new exhibition, 'Thank You for Shopping With Us.” | ✍️ Nicky Ni👇
S.Y. Lim
“Thank You for Shopping With Us,” a pop-up exhibition featuring Chicago artist Thomas Kong and curated by S.Y. Lim, conjures a holiday spirit from unnoticed everyday materials: packaging waste. Kong takes over the corner atrium at the Design Museum of Chicago with rows and rows of plastic thank-you bags that hang across the floor-to-ceiling windows. Each bag serves as a canvas for a unique and colorful collage.
Kong, who also runs the convenience store Kim’s Corner Food in Rogers Park, is dexterous at putting excess into artistic use. Various cardboard papers are cut and arranged into abstract but curious shapes; some elicit their previous packaging duties, others stay completely anonymous. One of my favorites: a penny trapped inside of a plastic clamshell case, on top, a green leaf taped to white paper, below, a small orange block—is it a price tag? A post-it? Origin unknown.
Stacks of heavily decorated plastic crates comfortably occupy the angular gallery space as freestanding sculptures. The crates declare they are “property of KDP.” But in response, Kong covers up most of the label, leaving only KDP’s bubbly logo hanging like a pilcrow. A new paragraph of glyphs and symbols begins. What remains most memorable are small stickers that read “be happy,” which quietly appear in many of Kong’s compositions.