A pop makeover for Darth Vader

It’s hard to imagine the voice of James Earl Jones coming out of some of the Vader Project pop-inspired helmets at auction last weekend.

Carmen Mirandarth (with fruit as hair). Darth Mushroom (baby-girl pink), Hanus (a red-nosed clown), Darthodontics (bad decaying teeth). He’d likely, though, be right at home with one bearing the title “Root of All Evil,” although he’d have to snort like a pig, since the main feature was a pig’s snout.

The helmets were among 100 auctioned off Saturday at Freeman’s Auctioneers & Appraisers in Philadelphia, a very unlikely place for such a pop-culture event. When I think of Freeman’s, considered the oldest and one of the most venerable of auction houses in the country, Star War’s Darth Vader does not come to mind.

But there they were, lined up on black-draped stilts along two walls in the gallery, where they had been stationed all week for previews. The auction culminated a five-year project conceived and organized by owners of a toy-selling company in North Hollywood, Calif.

The idea for asking 100 of the best pop/underground/urban/poster/surrealist artists (how they were described depended on what article you read) came from the husband-wife team of Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks. The two own DKE Toys, which distributes designer toys, books and prints.

In a recent video interview on the site Outta This World, Marks said that they chose artists they like and whose works they sell, and selected Star Wars as the theme because they love Star Wars. In a 2008 interview on the blog Vinyl Pulse, Kelemer said that he had been selling collectible toys for 15 years and was a collector of Star Wars memorabilia. He said in the interview that he had made a down payment on his house some years ago by selling his vintage Star Wars collection.

Each artist – from all over the globe – was given a full-sized helmet (obtained from a licensee who had about 100 unusable ones in a warehouse) and one rule: Keep it kid-friendly, Marks said in the video. They noted on their Vader Project website that Star Wars’ creator Lucasfilms had no association with the project.

The first exhibit was in Los Angeles in May 2007 with 66 helmets (that’s the number that had actually been returned by the artists, Marks said). From there, it toured Europe in July 2007 and Japan in 2008. The final stop was last year at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Most were artists I had never heard of before, but I was intrigued and fascinated by the replica helmets and the wildly divergent visions of the artists. Through my research, I learned more about several of them and their amazing work outside the Vader Project, including Kozik, who appeared to be the master artist of concert posters.

I also came across two helmets by African American artists among the group: Jermaine Rogers (see his “Death-Starry Night” above left and in the online catalog, page 166), a concert-poster artist with some neat products and what seemed like an avid following. Madtwinz (see their entry above right and in the online catalog, page 129), twin brothers who mix hip-hop and animation, who made “The Root of All Evil,” one of my favorites. There were also a smattering of women, including Carmen Mirandarth’s Girls Drawin Girls, who said they created their company to highlight female animators.

Rogers’ helmet did not sell at the auction. In fact, many of them did not make what appeared to be the minimum bid of $1,500. (The catalog had estimated most to sell from $3,000 to $5,000.) About one-third of the helmets sold at auction.

The auction itself was pretty quiet and low-key. Most of the bidding was on the phone, the internet and through absentee bidding, with only two participating from the floor. Only about 15 people were in the room. There appeared to be more people at the previews on the days I attended last week, most likely interested in seeing what the artists had wrought.

Here’s a sampling of what sold and for how much (the prices do not include a 25 percent premium):

Mr. Cartoon, Darth Fader – $14,000

 

Frank Kozik, Rust Vader – $10,000. One of my favorites.

 

Huck Gee, Kurai No Kurai – $8,500

 

Wade Lageose, Lageose Design, Untitled – $8,000. Another favorite.

 

Plasticgod, Praise the Lord – $6,500 (online catalog, page 158). Another favorite.

  

Martin Ontiveros, Dark Lord of the Slits – $5,000

 

Touma, The Dark in Mind – $5,000

 

Gris Grimley, Villians – $4,250 (online catalog, page 90)

 

Cameron Tiede, Darth Invaded – $4,000

 

Amanda Visell, Untitled – $4,000

 

 

Urban Medium, Good vs. Evil – $3,250

 

Tim Biskup, Honor Thy Father – $3,000 (online catalog, page 26)

 

Girls Drawin Girls, Carmen Mirandarth – $1,500