CUTECUTECUTE
Isn´t that cute: funny little cartoon creatures totter back and forth before a delicately patterned gray background: Sheep, teddy bears, and hamsters. Sneakers, penis, double whopper. Company logos and computers screens. Playing piece and MySpace profile. A man´s voice from off screen sings a lively Japanese song. While all of this is going on, a brief commentary in English appears at the bottom of the screen.
But wait a moment - this echo of the "Hello Kitty" universe and related cute little models of the world is a black sea of tears. Drifting herein are references to child labor, omnipresent surveillance, genetically manipulated foodstuffs, fungal disease, lack of civil courage, teenagers run amok, child abuse, discrimination, personality theft, terror paranoia, and abuse. All contemporaries of today´s consumer capitalism - which for its part enjoys addressing its infantile clientele with mascots and transfers, similar to the ones described above.
Clemens Kogler´s cartoon film, less than two-minutes long: CUTECUTECUTE. Already in prior projects, the artist subjected plans and the design of negotiation tools and other set pieces of methodical production power optimization or precise target group management to a background reloading construction. These works, too, had a beginning and end, but at the same time were marked by the tendency to loop, by a (predilection for endless) repetition. In the end, here, too, one can´t say after watching it the first time: is that cute, or what?
(Isabella Reicher)
Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt
Actually a video I´m not so sure about. However the concept was to take the "well-known genre" of instructional videos fors kids, usually teaching the various sounds of animals or how to count up to 10 and changing the subjects to more grown-up themes like abortion, child abuse etc.
Content and graphics are inspired by the japanese "kawaii" phenomena, were cute little mascots and characters cheerfully guide citizens through all sorts of daily activities and situations.
In CUTECUTECUTE these cute little critters go a step further and tell about things which are normally sort of a taboo in society. And as these pledorable little figures find out for what hideous facts they stand for they simply start crying. Cause they want to be good, but life simply isn´t always that way.
(Clemens Kogler)
watch film online
CUTECUTECUTE
2008
Austria
1 min 50 sec