Kaws Seeing/Watching 2 pc -- Mystery Vinyl, likely an easter eggl For Sale

On January 31st 2018, the toychronicle, hypebeast and toysrevil blogs lauded the unveiling of KAW'S' SEEING/WATCHING atop the retail element of the Changsha IFS complex in Changsha with the designer vinyl shown in pic 10, a release that without explination never happened. Instead, on April 25th 2018, Kaws and his then new chinese partner, All Rights Reserved(ARR) released a limited edition BFF-Companion plush pairing of plush figures that bore no resemblence to the seeing/watching pose.. It is the one and only time that a Kaws figure associated with the unveiling of a Monumental sculpture did not match the new works. Around that time, Kaws also released a limited edition figure of Seeing sans watching made of alloy, fiberglass and LED's that made companion's eyeballs glow. The small scale Seeing sculpture retailed for $50,000. Not only did the teased multiple blogs never materialised, medicom did not release a medicom product with the monumental sculpture for the first time up to that date..

Over three years after the aborted vinyl release in second half of 2021, I discovered and then bought every variant (Brown-Blue,Grey-Pink, Black-black) of Kaws Seeing/Watching vinyl -- as shown in black in my pictures -- on . The figures were listed by a a best-of-breed (Neco, Disney, DC, Bandai, etc) toy seller who my periferal research indicates is also the O.E.M. for the figures they sell. Such an arrangement with an OEM would not be unusual in the global economy nor would it be unlike Kaws first designer vinyl deal with Bounty Hunter where he secured a share of the release to sell directly while his partner sold the rest through their sales channels, while in my hypothetical, the O.E.M. for the figures also was entitled to a share of the production run . The former comment is only speculation but it is also the only plausible account for how these Medicom Kaws Seeing Watching figures came into existence. They have a medicom 2016 time stamp on the soles of the figures shoes which would be the year the figure was designed and developed by all rights reserved with a test run on medicom vinyl before Kaws signed a deal with his new partner. If you don't want to read further, in short, I believe Medicom, Kaws long time partner had exclusive rights to produce and distribute his designer vinyl through the end of 2020, an educated speculation based on the fact that Kaws 1st ARR designer vinyl, Companion 2020, only came on the market at the end of 2020 with those figures delivery only occuring in 2021, fitting neatly with a decade long vinyl exclusivity arrangement expiring at the end of 2020. a

Kaws Seeing/Watching figures (shown in pictures 11 & 12) wstand eight meters high with likewise enormous monumental Kaws murals under girding them were unveiled with great fanfare as part of the opening ceremoniesfor Changsha International Finance Square, a 1,026,000 square meter mixed use developement in the heart of Changsha China. It was a big deal. The complex includes a94 story office tower (the 16th highest building in the world), a 54 story luxury/hotel and office complex, and the 230,000 sq ft 10 story high end mega-,mall anchoring the other two buildings with Kaws Seeing/Watching son a rooftop patio overlooking a street that amounts to the rodeo drive of China's booming Hunan provence, the main gateway to Hong Kong. The 400 stores in the 10 story retail building are nothing short of a who’s who in global luxury brands; name one and it will have a store in this mega mall. Suffice it to say the unveiling of the buildings and the mixed media Seeing/Watching figures re to the day the biggest project by far that uses Kaws brand appeal through monumental sculptures both to promote the building and highlight the talent and industrial capacity available in chine, taking only 331 day for the complete fabrication and installation of the pieces..

The 8 meter high statures also mark a number of other firsts for Kaws. They are his first and only permanent installation in mainland China. And when considered as a whole, including the two enormous Kaws mural on the top edges above the building that BFF’s feet dangle down, I believe I'm correct in asserting that they are the largest permanent Kaws installation in the world though I welcome correction on this guess if I am wrong, And to top it off, these figures also were the first time Kaws created a composition incorporating his two most famous figures together. They are in my opinion his best sculptures (if he even designed them which I question -- I include a part of my basis for this assertion in an endnote to this text) both for their in the round quality — they sit back to back, BFF’s feet dangling over 100+ foot drop with Comp sitting behind him on the ground nervously clutching his bent knee and conspiculously looking in the opposite direction as if hes scared —content which suggests suicidal contemplation, a theme consistent with the loneliness and fear of death Kaws references in interviews when talking about the figures. This dark current that runs through all of his work as is most notably present in the X’s on the eyes reminiscent of the tragedy of Oedipus but this dark undercurrent is blissfully abset in most of Kaws published Vinyl. These figures pulls this troubling content out of the darkness into plain sight. All the tableau would need to make this message ham-fisted clear would be to have a scaled version of the Macy’s day parade float falling below BFF's feet half-way down the building then punctuated by a splattered Companion 2020 splatted on the ground below it in a pool of blood. Dark, yes… but also as interesting and authentic a Kaws piece as I've seen. It is his Naked Lunch showing what is at the end of the fork in all of his seemingly glib figures.

Lastly, the most interesting and relevant first is that Seeing Watching is the first time KAWS did not sell matching vinyl with the unveiling, instead releasing combo BFF & Comp figures that bear no resemblance whatsoever to their large scale point of reference. These plush figures were produced for Kaws by ARR. It is likely also not a coincidence that Kaws only began selling his Uniglo plushes in 2016 too which would be consistent with his new partner having franchise rights to sell Kaws themed plushes leaving the Vinyl to medicom but most certainly not based on their Kaws designs, most particularly seeing watching.

I believe this disconnect between the large sculpture’s and figures released in consort with them has everything to do with the negotiation of how his works will be marketed by his then two partners, ARR and Medicom, and given (I speculate) his initial contractual obligations to Medicom for Vinyl figures using his brand's charactistic features. Medicom produced and distributed Kaws late 2010's vinyl offering through the end of 2020, while ARR first Kaws vinyl was only release in december 2020 in the form of Comp 2020 -- which really does go dark nicely with seeing watching. ARR's cut given Kaws previous obligations came in the form of plush exclusivity including the plushes inexplicably unlike the monumental seeing watching sculptures they released in 2018. I would guess it was also ARR that sold Kaws plushes into Uniglo stores, where both Uniglo Japanese owners and ARR could profit from their joimnt state in kaws.

So these Vinyl Sculptures were shelved with only the OEM holding a small inventory of them for five years --- likely by a pre-existing lock up of their Kaws figure producrtion that prohibited them from selling them for five years from the initial release of the figures, which in this case ended up being the plush figures.And then they were put on the market on the sly and I bought them, rather than settling for 1/2 Seeing figure (alloy, fiberglass, led lights0 which Kaws sold as an LE san watching at the time of the opening,

This analysis is consistent with the timellines and companies whose business has including selling Kaws into mainstream popularity. Seeing Watching figures and keychains were produced by all rights reserved in plush form as was Kaws expensive limited edition Pink Dior sculpture which was likewise an ARR production. T

The logic fits. Check the labels or boxes on plush seeing watching figures and you’ll see they were produced by all rights reserved. And up until the last month of the 2010’s when Comp 2020 was released by ARR every designer vinyl figure of the KAWS brand was produced and distributed by Medicom.

The facts of the merchandise and clean split between plushes being exclusive to ARR through 2020 and vinyl exclusive to medicom through 2020.

I am as interested in thoughtful input contesting or supporting my account of where these figures origins

ENDNOTE: The Question of Authorship in Kaws Vinyl

Last summer, Kaws Holiday Singapore was shut down by a singapore judge for among other reasons theft of intellectual properties. What was notable in the filing was that All Rights Reserved was listed as a defendant but not Brian Donally aka Kaws. This omission inclines me to think that Kaws figures are designed for whomever is buying the monumental sculptures to their spec with Kaws just being the brand marketing but not conceiving of the characters. The suit was settled between the parties and the event was reopened — with the vinyl now for sale various places online — but the fact that Kaws chinese partner (producer/distributor) was successfully sued (though not found guilty) combined with the fact that Kaws background is graphic design and not sculpture, along with the wild stylistic variations and content of his pre-2015 vinyl make the proposition that a kaws figure is by brand for hire rather than a person realistic.