From cats and plushies to emojis, a new central London exhibition which opened on Thursday is exploring the “irresistible force” of “cuteness.”
Even before the doors to “CUTE” opened at Somerset House, influencers in Japanese schoolgirl uniforms, Hello Kitty dresses and Pikachu hats playfully posed for photos to charm their social media followers.
The exhibition blends art with an array of musical clips, video games and memes from social media, exploring a largely virtual culture that has swept across the globe with the explosion of the Internet.
Photo: AFP
One room of CUTE is a tribute to cats, which make up some of the most viewed content on the Internet, contrasting 19th-century black-and-white feline photographs with futuristic artificial intelligence-generated rainbow kitten portraits.
Further on, a collage of curly-haired Renaissance cherubs — the original cute babies of art history — intermingles with plush toys, mangas and iconic figures from the kawaii (cute, 可愛) culture that emerged in 20th-century Japan.
For the exhibition’s curator, Claire Catterall, the concept of cute is so vast that she struggles to define it.
Photo: AFP
“The exhibition unpacks what cuteness is, so it’s a very slippery scene,” she said. “It’s very hard to define. It’s very tricky. And in many ways, that’s the power of it. It’s so many different things all at once.”
In sections divided by cat-shaped or rainbow arches, contemporary works share space with commercial products such as Tamagotchi toys or Sylvanian Family figures, reminding visitors that cuteness is a lucrative billion-dollar business.
The CUTE exhibition is sponsored by Japanese company Sanrio Co, which globally markets merchandise of the feline-inspired character Hello Kitty, created about 50 years ago.
Visitors meander under an archway adorned with the character’s likeness, walls blanketed in colorful plush toys, before shimmying under the Hello Kitty disco’s glitter ball.
“Cuteness and capitalism are so closely intertwined,” Catterall said. “There is this kind of quite queasy quality about that which makes people feel really uncomfortable.”
Although cuteness lives “within the capitalist structures which spawned it,” it could also be what disrupts it the most, she added.
The aesthetics of cuteness were once mocked or adopted ironically but its values and dress codes are now championed by many young people as they allow for an “existence outside the norms,” particularly for women and the queer community, Catterall said.
“I think for a long time, cuteness has been considered childish and inconsequential and not serious, but this exhibition will hopefully show that there’s so much more to it than that,” the curator said. “It’s actually really something to be taken seriously, and can tell us so many things about us and the world around it.”
CUTE also touches on a more political dimension of cuteness, in a section featuring a fuchsia pink balaclava from the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, known for their provocative protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As immersive exhibitions and museums proliferate worldwide, CUTE, open to the public until April 4, also emphasizes interactivity.
Visitors can enjoy vintage Japanese video games in an arcade room or relax at a “pyjama party” in a vast teen bedroom complete with bean bags and pop music, created by British artist Hannah Diamond.
“It’s exuberant, it’s exhilarating, it’s empowering,” Catterall said. “We wanted to create a space where people could come in, dance, feel really happy, cover themselves in Hello-Kitty-glow of goodness.”
Cuteness is not just an “aesthetic,” she said. “It’s a feeling.”
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