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a A cute white kitten with iridescent fur has been peeking out from posters on the London Underground for weeks now, its fluffy head crowned with a golden unicorn horn. But when you look at it again, the image becomes disconcerting. This chubby little creature has another pair of legs sticking out of its neck, and its metal horns look like screws driven into its skull. Those big blue eyes no longer look cute, but empty and intimidating.
“We wanted to make people uncomfortable,” says Claire Catterall, curator of Somerset House’s new exhibition Cute. “So we needed something a little uncomfortable, with both an irresistible cuteness and a dark side.”
Eighteen cute and creepy kitten monsters greet visitors to the show, lined up like unsettling family portraits on the entrance wall. These were generated using AI by his Graphic Thought Facility in his design studio, and set the tone for what unfolds as an eerie, unsettling, yet highly captivating show. To be honest, I was a little wary that this was going to be another Instagram-designed selfie festival, like an “immersive” balloon museum or an “experiential” ice cream museum. A series of backgrounds that fill your social media feed with pastel rainbows. Selfie. There are a few bits of that, but overall this exhibition is neither reckless influencer fodder nor an overly cynical take on the subject. Rather, it’s a thoughtful exploration of the cult and culture of cuteness that both fascinates and repulses you in its sweet embrace. Sugar-coated tablets with an unexpected aftertaste.
Given that much of what AI generates tends to have a cute aesthetic built into it, AI kittens are a good starting point. This is not surprising, considering that it scrapes its source material from the internet, where cute has become the default language. From lolcat memes and talking dogs to cartoonish stickers, GIFs, and emojis. Meanwhile, cats have emerged as the de facto guardians of cyberspace. When Tim Berners, the inventor of the World Wide Web, asked Lee to name a use for the Internet that he hadn’t expected, he answered with one word: “kitten.”
The first room in the exhibition is a proper cat room, complete with baseboards cut out with cat profiles, one of the many fun details peppered throughout the exhibit by designers AOC Architecture. The trippy psychedelic visions of schizophrenic painter Louis Wain and Harry Pointer’s 1870s creation of his pet cat having a tea party, which Catterall describes as “the first cat meme.” You can find greeting cards with small pictures of people riding tricycles. It’s a reminder that the human urge to anthropomorphize kittens, add funny captions, and share them as pocket-sized images isn’t something invented by the internet, but an age-old tradition. After all, the Victorians had an insatiable appetite for cuteness, using doe-eyed animals and rosy-cheeked children on the wrappers of biscuit tins and chocolate bars, and consuming It stimulated people’s desires.
Similarly, the history of the Kewpie doll, which you might associate with Japanese mayonnaise and its collectible plastic toys, dates back to 1909, when it was first illustrated as a cartoon by Rose O’Neill. A few years later, it was made in Germany as an unglazed figurine, and a celluloid version was mass-produced, becoming the first consciously cute product to become a global hit and paving the way for Hello Kitty and Jellycat’s stuffed toy empire.
The history lesson continues with a room about Japanese “kawaii” culture. This culture takes a very different form and is partially explained by its origins. The English word cute comes from the word acute, meaning wise or cunning, and was first shortened in the 18th century. However, the etymology of kawaii is as follows. Kawahayushi, an expression that appeared in the 11th century, meaning to blush in the sense of embarrassment or embarrassment. That’s understandable when you look at her 1930s illustrations of sparkling-eyed characters staring out from comic book covers, or of women with coveted oversized eyes that preceded them. Although this manga may seem like a sexist male fantasy, much of it is based in the tradition of shoujo manga, drawn by women for women, and subverting traditional gender stereotypes. Featuring empowering stories. Meanwhile, the vulgar cover of Barazoku, Japan’s first commercial gay men’s magazine, launched in the 1970s, shows that kawaii culture is not just limited to girls.
It’s no coincidence that the rise of kawaii culture in the 1990s coincided with Japan’s economic downturn and its “lost decade,” with the stock market plummeting and the rise of cute Harajuku streetwear. As society crumbles, the retreat into a safe cocoon of cuteness holds a stark mirror to our current times. Carpet bombing, climate chaos, the return of Trump – but oh, look at that smoky round boy! As Catterall puts it, the current popularity of cuteness is partly due to “all the general This may be due to “shit.”
This huge shrine dedicated to Hello Kitty is the perfect place to forget about the outside world. A triumphal arch of the iconic mouthless creature leads into a walled space filled with hundreds of bearded stuffed animals. This vertical mass grave of cute white faces staring back at you, silently lined up, takes you to a small dance floor where you can boogie to his tunes, a sweet disco directed by David Gamson of Scritti’s Politti. I will guide you.
Upstairs, things get more modern, with many artists born in the 90s, and their cute pieces divided into five “islands” that explore different aspects of cuteness. From a Susie Sad Eyes doll to an injured Japanese action figure staring forlornly at its bandaged arm, we present pensive products designed to draw attention to cute sadness and make you want to care for it. The other focuses on how cuteness can foster a sense of belonging and community. The My Little Pony toy exhibit introduces us to the existence of the Bronies, an unlikely fan group of mostly heterosexual adult men who create pony art and seek “guidance in life” from ponies. A moving horse with a rainbow mane. The third island explains how cuteness can hide bad taste and includes a photo of Hitler feeding a baby deer.
Although much of what is on display may seem ironic at first glance, there is an underlying sincerity, especially in the works of Gen Z. Interdisciplinary artist Hannah Her Diamond envisioned a room as a sleepover for the girls. A screen playing a loop of glossy, highly synthesized electronic dance music videos. Devoted to a kind of pink hyperfemininity, Diamond’s work rejects the derogatory connotations of girlhood and seeks to reclaim its positive, transformative potential. (I didn’t find it particularly unusual, but I don’t think I’m her target audience.)
Next door, the game center explores the ever-growing genre of cute independent video games. The brutal shooters of old are gone in favor of “cozy” games that simulate relaxing activities like running a cat cafe or staying at home on a rainy day. Despite their cute aesthetic, some people have more morbid tendencies. “Froggy Pot” is described as “a short, cozy game with a little bit of existential threat”, but when a frog is slowly warmed up in a pot of water, it doesn’t notice the temperature increase and the final Inspired by a folk tale about boiling water. alive.
Another existential horror is suitably provided towards the end, courtesy of Ed Forniles. Artists have created various cute characters called Finis during the pandemic. Since then, its population has soared to more than 10,000 people, and it was born as a “living NFT” whose sentiment fluctuates depending on the value of the cryptocurrency. As he explains on his website, when linked currencies perform well, we feel happy and energized, and when they perform poorly, we feel sad and even feel bad. (When I checked the list, many were crying or in freefall doom spirals.)
His new film, The Adventures of the Iconic Tyrant of Love, features Fini’s voiceover in a cute, child-like, chirping voice that says, “A new kind of emerging technology, a new type of emerging technology, and a variety of relationships at different levels.” “a device used by people to filter, buffer, and rally.” Management and Control”. The chubby-cheeked avatar goes on to quote theorist Frances Richards: Professing its own modesty and complete powerlessness, it acquires power and directs every interaction with it. ”
From cuddly OxyContin-shaped stuffed animals to civic mascots to fully stocked gift shops at trade shows, cuteness is a sedative that forces us, controls us, and forces us to consume more than ever before. It is weaponized all around us as a tool. Can you tolerate the sweet anesthesia?
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