Francoise Dupre and I co-curated this exhibition. All the sculptors who had shown work in the Gallery before were invited to bring along their latest creations to display. The image on the poster and pv card was a silhouette of Nelson’s Column falling down – a symbol of old, traditional styles of sculptor being superseded by exciting new ones.
Instead of prompting a small debate on the development of the aesthetics of three dimensional art, we were taught a lesson in mass media madness as all interest focussed on Christina Berry’s punk cats.
Most people who saw these cartoon kitties, made of foam and leatherette and decorated with stylised punk bondage gear, found them amusing but, one person didn’t. She seemed to think it was an incitement to animal cruelty and so got the local paper to run a critical article. The tabloids ran the story as ‘Gallery gets GLC funding for cat torture exhibition’, some animal activists smashed one of our windows and we very nearly lost our grant funding.
Miaow-ouch.
CATALOGUE
