CITIZEN:Citizen Has It All Sewn Up

You're on a serious road trip, starving, and all you keep passing are creepy-looking ma 'n' pa joints serving a menu you imagine must contain possum. Your belly's grumbling louder than a recalcitrant Hillary Clinton supporter, but you don't want to stop for fear of one innocent meal turning into nonconsensual employ as someone's gimp. Finally, you spot the jackpot: a reflective green billboard with familiar fast-food logos. Ahhh, civilization is nigh. And then your stomach sinks as you realize Taco Bell is your anchor.

Screw old-timey quirkiness; modern ubiquity is the benchmark of American comfort. Which is why wicked San Francisco gallery and e-shop CITIZEN:Citizen stitched up ten cozy patchwork quilts emblazoned with logos of 58 of this country's most iconic mass-market food chains, retailers and corporations. Handmade by Bradley Price and Joel Yatscoff, American Comfort Quilt is supposed to be a work of art, but who wouldn’t find warmth swaddled in the splendor of those who've branded America the place it is today?

Best-known for his gilded widgets designed for more well-appointed sniffing (such as his gold-plated McDonald's stirring spoon and Bic pen cap), Tobias Wong encourages us to examine the notion of luxury without actually having to change our low-brow ways. His latest is the ccPhone (only 50 were made, available exclusively through San Francisco's CITIZEN:Citizen), a fully functional iPhone that the utilitarian-art prankster has restyled and stuffed with artwork and music from like-minded friends.

Actual content is hush-hush, but we can tell you it includes video of Toby's infamous concrete Doorstop molded from an Alvar Aalto Savoy vase (that had to be smashed) and obtuse photos taken by CITIZEN:Citizen owners while on holiday around the globe. Plus—and here's where it really gets interesting—the address book comes pre-stocked and gets updated twice a year with well-known contacts of CITIZEN:Citizen from the fashion, art and design worlds, as well as such randomness as the local taqueria and print shop. Apparently, however, some private home numbers have mysteriously made it in, so no prank calls!