Known for her distinctive satirical films, Scottish artist Rachel Maclean is examining the world of cuteness by curating works from both the Arts Council Collection and the Birmingham Museum collection.
Too Cute! - which opens at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery this month - reveals how objects and images can have the unique ability to be both sweet and sinister.
Via the exhibition, which is presented in a gallery reflecting the artist’s signature colourful style, Maclean asks why we feel the need to share and reproduce cute things. She also questions the fine line between cuteness and creepiness.
Showcasing multiple manifestations of sinister cuteness - the pieces on display range from 19th century oil paintings to internet-inspired installations - Too Cute! includes works by John Isaacs, Gillian Wearing, Ana Maria Pacheco, Helen Chadwick, Paula Rego, Peter Blake and Hermann Sondermann.
The exhibition is accompanied by an interpretative video with a twist. Dr Cute - a grotesque Care Bear-like creature played by Rachel Maclean - presents a short lecture on the themes explored in the show, whilst repeatedly being distracted by its contents. As the doctor attempts to put forward an academic account of cuteness and its effects, she is constantly hindered by sudden emotional responses, as artworks incite reflexes of love, repulsion and fear.
Maclean is no stranger to Birmingham, having spent August 2017 as the Bullring’s artist-in-residence for Channel Four’s The Shopping Centre. Sleeping, eating and working there, she explored the question of whether shopping can ever make people happy. Her findings resulted in a film in which she played a character called the Satisfaction Bunny and asked, ‘r u satisfied?’, bombarding dissatisfied shoppers with advertising.
Commenting on Too Cute!, Rachel says: “I’ve had a fantastic time exploring Birmingham’s collection and the Arts Council Collection. It’s been an honour to be able to bring together a show that includes so many artists who I admire. I’ve been fascinated by cuteness for a long time and think that, despite it being an area which so many artists investigate, it can often be overlooked as being too silly, shallow or feminine a subject for debate.
“I think cuteness is fundamental to our experience of consumer capitalism, and it’s important that we take it seriously in order to understand what we use cute objects for and the effect they have on us. Something which has come to the fore in curating the show has been the number of artists who toe the line between cuteness and creepiness. There’s something fascinatingly complex about this, and for me, it’s the fundamental mystery of the cute object - how can things that look sweet be simultaneously sinister?”
Too Cute! Sweet is about to get Sinister shows at Birmingham Museum & Art ery from Sat 26 January to Sunday 12 May
Known for her distinctive satirical films, Scottish artist Rachel Maclean is examining the world of cuteness by curating works from both the Arts Council Collection and the Birmingham Museum collection.
Too Cute! - which opens at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery this month - reveals how objects and images can have the unique ability to be both sweet and sinister.
Via the exhibition, which is presented in a gallery reflecting the artist’s signature colourful style, Maclean asks why we feel the need to share and reproduce cute things. She also questions the fine line between cuteness and creepiness.
Showcasing multiple manifestations of sinister cuteness - the pieces on display range from 19th century oil paintings to internet-inspired installations - Too Cute! includes works by John Isaacs, Gillian Wearing, Ana Maria Pacheco, Helen Chadwick, Paula Rego, Peter Blake and Hermann Sondermann.
The exhibition is accompanied by an interpretative video with a twist. Dr Cute - a grotesque Care Bear-like creature played by Rachel Maclean - presents a short lecture on the themes explored in the show, whilst repeatedly being distracted by its contents. As the doctor attempts to put forward an academic account of cuteness and its effects, she is constantly hindered by sudden emotional responses, as artworks incite reflexes of love, repulsion and fear.
Maclean is no stranger to Birmingham, having spent August 2017 as the Bullring’s artist-in-residence for Channel Four’s The Shopping Centre. Sleeping, eating and working there, she explored the question of whether shopping can ever make people happy. Her findings resulted in a film in which she played a character called the Satisfaction Bunny and asked, ‘r u satisfied?’, bombarding dissatisfied shoppers with advertising.
Commenting on Too Cute!, Rachel says: “I’ve had a fantastic time exploring Birmingham’s collection and the Arts Council Collection. It’s been an honour to be able to bring together a show that includes so many artists who I admire. I’ve been fascinated by cuteness for a long time and think that, despite it being an area which so many artists investigate, it can often be overlooked as being too silly, shallow or feminine a subject for debate.
“I think cuteness is fundamental to our experience of consumer capitalism, and it’s important that we take it seriously in order to understand what we use cute objects for and the effect they have on us. Something which has come to the fore in curating the show has been the number of artists who toe the line between cuteness and creepiness. There’s something fascinatingly complex about this, and for me, it’s the fundamental mystery of the cute object - how can things that look sweet be simultaneously sinister?”
Too Cute! Sweet is about to get Sinister shows at Birmingham Museum & Art ery from Sat 26 January to Sunday 12 May