Too Cute ! Sweet is about To Get Sinister

Too Cute! is about to get sinister. With this simple line the exhibition at the Birmingham Museum got me very interested indeed. Cuteness is everywhere, we are sharing it everyday through our messaging, or experiencing it through every social medias regardless if the experiences is for a positive or a negative view. Its everywhere we cannot escape it!
The exhibition started with Rachel Maclean , the artist behind the exhibition, dressed as Dr Cute. A blue bear character with big hears, bright colour outfit, bright yellow hair & sharp teeth. Dr Cute welcomes you and lecture you on "the effect of cuteness".

I suggest you watch the below video trailer: 

Following the video interaction of Dr Cute (where she is largely distracted by the appearance of a 'cute' guinea pig, or text messages bombarding with emojis from her upset child, wondering where her mum is? and her landlord reminding her about the rent.)  You are ask to go through a door armed with giant teeth that lead you to large room that could only be describe as an unicorn that just throw up a rainbow which is the perfect aesthetic of what is to come.  Colours are bright, the carpeted floor is a rainbow of colour, emojis stickers are plastered everywhere on walls , ribbons and bows abound & walls are painted in a bright pink. Its bright , its colourful, its playful yet it as creep as hell.  The art exposed could all be described as cute, but when you look deeper some make you feel uneasy, creap you out  by the whole experience. 

Here below the quote taken from The Birmingham web site which describe it better than I do : "The Artist & Filmmaker Rachel Maclean examines the world of cuteness by curating works from the Arts Council Collection and Birmingham's collection to reveal how objects and images can have the unique ability to be simultaneously sweet and yet sinister. 
Contemporary life is saturated by cuteness, from adult onesies to social media photo-filters, playground like office spaces to wide eyed emoticons, we can't move for all things sweet and cuddly. However, despite its pervasiveness in advertising, internet and commodity culture, cuteness often seems too frivolous to be deserving of proper analysis. 
In Too Cute! Rachel Maclean has made an exhibition where cuteness is taken seriously. She fascinated by its ability to captivate and placard us and through her investigations into the collections she has explored both what it has meant to us historically and why contemporary society is so fixed on the sharing and reproduction of cute objects and images."

Too Cute ! Sweet is about to get sinister! Is a free exhibition from Rachel Maclean open until the 12th May 2019. If you are from Birmingham or visiting this vibrant city soon, then I strongly suggest you pay a visit to The Birmingham Museum for the above exhibition above but also all the other amazing collection the museum offer from Egyptian, Baroque and Renaissance art to the Pre-Raphaelites. Also let not mention the amazing Edwardian Tea Room on the 1st floor ( A must see too) !