Nigel Ip

The Cute exhibition at Somerset House could have been cuter.

Offering a varied history of cuteness from Victorian photographs of cats to the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, the exhibition explores the trait’s multifaceted manifestations in modern society. Cats are a common theme; did you expect anything less?

Japan’s international marketing of kawaii and lolita culture is briskly explored, educating us in the early development of female protagonists and magical girls like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, while highlighting the country’s sexist attitudes. It’s not even close to being comprehensive and leaves much to be desired – more on chibi-style elements would have been perfect – but given its one-room allocation, it does ok. Western putti also gets a little mention, humbly represented by a Kewpie doll against a heart-shaped backdrop of Western artworks.

The Hello Kitty rooms are probably the high point, showcasing the franchise’s impressive merchandise from plushies and coin pouches to TVs and toasters. The middle section is basically a selfie area filled with plushies on walls in an architectural construct resembling Hello Kitty’s face. Behind it is disco room if you feel like dancing too.

From here, the exhibition becomes far less engaging as we dive into its many sub-genres. There is little here that ellicits an ‘aww’ response, and fewer things that most people would even recognise. One finds many attempts to categorise things from contemporary visual culture, such as My Little Pony, Duolingo, Tamagochi, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and the Portal sentry turret. While I appreciate the importance of understanding the nuances of cuteness’ many manifestations, the problem is that none of these sections receive any in-depth analysis, resorting to what is basically just a list of loosely-connected objects with just a single caption to tie them together; you have to scan the endless QR codes to get any extra information via the (admittedly quite beautiful) online guide (https://www.cute.guide/).

Notably absent is the prominent role played by YouTubers and other internet icons in personalising this visual language, such as Pusheen, Yootooz, FunkoPops, or even viral memes like Grumpy Cat and Nyan Cat. Perhaps rights permissions got in the way.

Meanwhile, contemporary art just…exists, without really contributing much. Oh, but at least there’s an arcade room where you can play games you’ve never heard of.

As someone whose Chinese upbringing was pretty much surrounded by cute tropes since my parents’ generation (anime, cosplay, gaming, YouTube) and continues to do so, I felt pretty disappointed and found many of the exhibits niche and unrelatable. While I didn’t expect the curators to know about Crayon Shin-Chan, Chibi Maruko-Chan, McDull, or Dr Slump, I was certainly looking out for Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Moomin, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Rabbit, or the Studio Ghibli films.

This exhibition, frankly, tries to cover too much ground without doing proper justice to any of it. It has the roots of a very nuanced exploration of cuteness, one that could be significantly improved with thorough research, better awareness of contemporary trends, and a strongly focused narrative. The early rooms were good and focused, but the rest just felt haphazard and out of touch.

Cute runs from 25 January to 14 April 2024 at Somerset House, London, https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/