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Philippe Starck - Strat® with 18 carat gold leaf.

Philippe Starck – Misery Under Gold Customised Fender® Stratocaster®. This sophisticated work of art necessitated putting a new Stratocaster® through some serious hardship. Starck's vision for his RockCouture™ guitar was inspired by his experiences in London, seeing abject poverty co-existing alongside flamboyant riches. The project involved using a new Strat® as a skate board, before dousing it in petrol, setting it on fire and then cryogenically freezing it, prior to covering the fingerboard, scratchplate and pickups with luxurious 18 carat gold leaf. This guitar stunningly portrays these two opposing realities living in such close proximity. Legendary French designer, Philippe Starck, turns everyday objects into something at once better, clearer and different from what they were, with everything from toothbrushes, to world-famous hotels getting the Starck treatment. His work is exhibited in museums around the world and he has won numerous awards including the Grand Prix for Industrial Design."It's about wealth and poverty, it's about London - at one end of the street there are Ferraris, at the other end people have nothing to eat" To benefit: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres