Artist Simon Lewis Wards with one of the limited-edition K Bar print wrappers that is raising eyebrows at Whittaker's. Photo / Michael Craig
Artist Simon Lewis Wards with one of the limited-edition K Bar print wrappers that is raising eyebrows at Whittaker's. Photo / Michael Craig
An oversized art print of a K Bar wrapper is not okay with the company that makes the iconic candy.
Whittaker's has set a June 30 deadline for the destruction of any of the hand-scrunched and enlarged replicas of the famous fruity toffee bar's packaging.
In a letter to artist Simon Lewis Wards, the company said it was "flattered" its packaging was being used, but took the protection of intellectual property rights "very seriously". It claimed the art prints - currently selling for around $1500 each - constituted trade mark infringement and a breach of the Fair Trading Act.
Legal correspondence has been ongoing since January. In a statement to the Weekend Herald, Whittaker's said it now recognised the intention of the artwork was to celebrate something quintessentially Kiwi, rather than to appropriate a trademark.
"But it is important that we protect our trademarks without exception, so that we can ensure they are not used inappropriately in the future based on any precedent that might be set by overlooking some instances of this, however well-intentioned."
Lewis Wards says he sought advice from an intellectual property lawyer before embarking on the print series. He agreed there had been some "to-ing and fro-ing", but said the matter had been settled amicably.
"I don't need to destroy anything, because it's all sold."
Artist Simon Lewis Wards - famous for cast glass jet planes and other lolly nostalgia - is preparing for his first solo show, Sugar Rush, at New Plymouth's Kina Art Space. Photo / Michael Craig
The limited-edition series includes 20 works in each of the six K Bar flavours: raspberry, lime, orange, lemon, blackberry and pineapple. Lewis Wards, who is most famous for his cast-glass jet plane lollies, had initially planned to make sculptural glass K Bars.
"And then I was like, 'okay, I need to make the wrapper' ... once I wrapped it round the glass piece and took it off, it was one of those thing where you're just like 'oh, this is just really cool by itself' ... it needs to be framed."
Lewis Wards says artists have always drawn from popular culture.
"Look, for instance, at Andy Warhol, right, and the Campbell's Soup Cans? When I did the K Bars, I was like 'oh, I'm going to make New Zealand's Campbell's Soup Cans'. It's an ode to the K Bar. It's not like I'm trying to make lollies here.
"I copy things and I mess with scale ... the scale shrinks the viewer. So that's where my interpretation is. Shrinking the viewer, changing the scale, and I leave the legal stuff up to my lawyer."
Currently preparing for his first solo show (Sugar Rush, opening at New Plymouth's Kina Gallery on April 16), the artist began making glass lollies a decade ago because their sculptural form appealed. He says the public response has been more about nostalgia.
"I didn't realise how strong people's feelings were towards their favourite candies. People are just invested in this stuff way more than I would have imagined."
The limited-edition K Bar prints, created by artist Simon Lewis Wards, sell for about $1500 apiece. Photo / Supplied
Lewis Wards says he plans to display oversized sculpted glass K Bars at his upcoming show. While his jet plane works draw on early childhood memories, the new works are more about the high school tuck shop.
"I think K Bars were 20c? And if you had no money and you'd swapped your lunch for something, you could make it last all lunchtime. Twenty cents could go far, especially in winter when those things are rock hard!"
Whittaker's has made K Bars since the 1950s. It said it appreciated "the time, skill and resource that the artist has put into creating these artworks" and believed a mutually satisfactory outcome had been reached - it had initially requested no print sales past April 30, but had agreed to a two-month extension.
"We have communicated that we are happy for him to sell the remainder of the prints that he has already created so that he is not disadvantaged, in return for an undertaking from him not to create any more of these prints."
