We Are (Lounge) Family

“They look like they’re mass produced, but I made them myself,” says 33-year-old artist Joji Okazaki with a sigh. The “Lounge Family and Friends” look at him, shaking their heads with empathy.

The Lounge Family comprises five “Swing Heads”: father Kaku, mother Maru, son Bu and two playmates, Mame and Oni. Each boasts round eyes and peg noses on maple or redwood bodies that range in form from squares to fat droplets. Their spring-mounted heads wiggle from side to side, reminiscent of kitschy hula girl dashboard ornaments. Actually, “They are like kokeshi,” Okazaki says, referring to the traditional wooden dolls with joined cylindrical bodies that tourists buy in Japan as souvenirs.

Okazaki, a former magazine designer and illustrator, conceived the Swing Heads two years ago. While flipping through photography books that showcased the living rooms of American and Japanese Gen-Xers, he noticed the lack of kokeshi in modern homes and formed his own family. A hit with Wallpaper magazine-types in Japan, the funky creatures are now offered by Los Feliz stores Plastica and X-Large for $24 a family member. “Some artists say this stuff is not art because it looks mass produced,” he says. “But art is art.”

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Plastica, (323) 644-1212; X-Large, (323) 666-3483.