Tuesday 14 October 2008

jCauty&SON ‘Splatter’ Exhibition

Tom and Jerry with overkill: jCauty&SON ‘the plausible impossibility of death in the mind of cartoon characters’

Ever wondered what might happen if Quentin Tarantino hijacked the offices of Warner Bros? I hadn't but jCauty&SON seemed to have given it some thought- they have even dedicated an exhibition to their sick imaginings.

jCauty&SON consists of James Cauty UK and his son Harry (who is 15). Passing the gallery window (containing a sculpture of Daffy Duck being shot in the head from behind) I looked in-everything appeared to be above board: people were drinking beer from bottles, there even seemed to be a little gift shop (bonus!) it was all standard private view behaviour. Framed prints featured Jerry being whacked with a hammer (post-mortem) and Sylvester finally getting hold of Tweety Bird-and completely ripping him apart. Already I was feeling slightly perturbed. I went downstairs where there was a far much more raucous scene.

The basement had been made to look like it had been ransacked with ‘controversial’ debris simply everywhere. By ‘controversial’ I mean pretty obvious stuff like empty dildo packaging and various other bits and bobs. To be honest, the blatant nature of the pieces made it impossible to be shocked in the end-I think this was the point. We are so used to seeing images of violence now that it is difficult to get a rise out of anyone-even if they try really hard. This kind Jake and Dinos Chapman-like style wasn’t executed quite as eloquently. I saw a little boy who couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 in that basement-he was watching a slow motion cartoon version of the sculpture in the window. God only knows what he will find shocking when he grows up: after watching Tom and Jerry with overkill surely things can only go downhill.





The exhibition is on until November 8th. www.jCautyandSON.com www.theaquariumonline.co.uk

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