Acrylic Kitten
Lock up your cats! Garudio Studiage have gathered every moggy in sight for this artists’ celebration of the kitsch world of kittens....
For five days only the Ada Street Gallery in the heart of Hackney became a shrine of newly created artwork dedicated to the fuzziest of our feline friends. Expect soft focus, saccharine-sweet faces and frilly props, in themed pieces from thirteen artists hand-picked by Chris Ratcliffe and Anna Walsh of artists collective Garudio Studiage.
Where else could you find Vicki Murdoch’s ‘Catavan’ (oh yes, a real caravan full of cat art!) parked up alongside Anna Walsh’s ‘Show Cat’ painted rosettes, Andy Prince’s ‘Four Kittens of The Apocalypse’ and Stephen Johnson‘s sculpture made entirely from ornamental cats.
The idea for the show came from Chris Ratcliffe and Anna Walsh’s ongoing personal collection of feline themed plates, photographs, paintings, blankets and other ephemera. With years of trawling through car boot sales and charity shops the pair have been mulling over the questions of taste that hang so pungently over these artefacts.
This domestic collection itself will also be on display as an art installation entitled ‘The Cultural Revenge of the Proletariat’, a reference to how kitsch is often regarded as the taste of the non art-trained working classes, and questioning its value in the world of art.
Acrylic Kitten is a spectacular homage to cultural identity, humour and tatse, as seen through the imagination of thirteen London-based artists with a penchant for the kitsch.
Shown at
Ada Street Gallery, 2a Ada Street, London, E8 4QU
From 25th - 29th June 2008
