The Labubu Effect

Labubu is a wide-eyed, snaggle-toothed creature from Pop Mart, a Chinese company known for blind box collectibles. You don't know which figure you've got until you open it. Some contain rare "secret" editions with high resale value. I'm fascinated by what happens when a plush toy goes viral, when it becomes a conduit for status and joy, when people queue for hours for the possibility of a rare one. Labubu is the epicentre of social-media-driven hyper-consumption at its most untethered. In TikTok after TikTok, collectors express a bemused confusion at how they somehow amassed so many, after planning to "only get one".

You may have heard of the "lipstick effect": when money is tight, people still seek small luxuries. Not the designer bag, but the lipstick. The Labubu phenomenon echoes this desire. This project weaves personal narrative with cultural observation. As an artist who develops work through conversation and participation, via interviews, open studios, and workshops, these practices will shape the process. I want to understand what Labubu, and its eventual collapse, says about joy and desire influenced by consumerism.

Follow the development of the project on the Labubu Effect Tumblr