James Joyce x Art of Ping Pong
Ten years after James Joyce created a one-off, hand-painted ping pong bat for Art of Ping Pong, the artist and British design studio have come together again for a new collection that was launched at Goodhood, London, last week.
The collaboration brings James’ distinctive Collapsed Clown Face artwork into the world of play, reimagined across a collection of functional art designed to be played with, handled and lived with.
The Collapsed Clown Face first appeared in 2013 as one of two large-scale paintings James created for a group exhibition at Mark Hix’s Tramshed gallery in Shoreditch. Its companion, a collapsed yellow acid smiley, later caught the attention of Banksy and became a recurring image at Dismaland in 2015. James continued to return to the clown, bringing it into his first collaboration with Art of Ping Pong in 2016 and, now, this new collection.
At the centre of the collection is the ArtTable, produced in a limited edition of 25. Hand-crafted and wall-mountable, it moves between artwork, furniture and a fully playable ping pong table.
Alongside it are powder-coated steel ArtNets in James’ colour palette, designed to function both as modular ping pong nets and sculptural wall pieces, and ArtBat sets featuring two printed bats and four balls.
As James says:
“I like the idea of these pieces being played with, handled and lived with, rather than purely looked at. It gives the work another kind of life.”
Art of Ping Pong is a British design studio exploring the intersection of art, design and play. Founded by Algy Batten and Caroline Moorhouse, the studio creates its own collections of functional art alongside collaborations with artists, designers and brands, transforming the familiar objects of ping pong into unexpected forms designed for both play and display.
At the heart of Art of Ping Pong is a belief that art and play should be part of everyday life, creating objects that are as considered on the wall as they are enjoyable to play with.
See the items in more detail here.
