Cute

And to be honest, we can’t take it anymore; these cute yet somehow super ugly faces make you want to hug them and be scared of them at the same time. You could say they embody cuteness itself, a form of escapism in a cruel world; of obsession, manipulation, and mega hype. The power of cuteness is hypnotising, confusing, and seductive. And that’s exactly what the exhibition Cute at Kunsthal Rotterdam, on display until November 23rd, is all about.

I mean, it’s not about Labubus, though you could easily write an entire text about them: how they were created by Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung and about their sales and… Stop. No, it’s not about Labubus. The exhibition is about cuteness in general: how it’s linked to technology, identity, desire, gender, and nostalgia. Basically, about how cuteness surrounds us in everyday life.

For that, Kunsthal Rotterdam features over fifty artists and collectives from all over the world: from Sejoon Kim to Takashi Murakami, the artist known for his superflat flowers and collaborations with Louis Vuitton and Kanye West; from Aya Takano to Mark Leckey and, of course, KAWS x Campana.

To show the many faces cuteness can have in our culture, the works are divided into five themes: Cry Baby, Play Together, Monstrous Other, Sugar-Coated Pill, and Hypersonic. Because of this, the range of cuteness goes from sweet, innocent, and comforting to critical, ambiguous, and occasionally even disturbing. You know, disturbing like when Iraq’s media reported ‘demonic spirits’ possessing Labubus and… Ah, stop, I did it again.

At Cute for example, you can see Ram Han’s shiny illustrations of tiny creatures that make feminine identity and futuristic fantasies collide. Or the AI-generated cat portraits by Graphic Thought Facility, which look perfect and super cuddly at first glance. But the longer and closer you look, the more details you discover and the more uneasy you feel.

At the same time, there’s a new dress designed by JimmyPaul to celebrate Miffy’s seventieth birthday, a Hello Kitty disco (no idea what happens in there, but I’m going to find out), a game arcade where you can dress up tiny digital monsters, including Labubu (my obsession is bigger than expected), and even the installation Glimmer, which lets you transform into an anime character.

To add some history knowledge, Cute also follows the rise and evolution of cuteness: from the first kawaii illustrations by Yumeji Takehisa made in Japan in the early 20th century, to mangas, pink globalisation, Sonny Angels, Instagram, and fast online stimuli. Fun fact: Kasing Lung was raised in Utrecht, so not far from Kunsthal Rotterdam.

So, to cut it short: Cute is an incredibly visually attractive experience we can all relate to. I mean, we’re one of the many generations that grew up with iconic figures like Hello Kitty, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing characters, and the doom-scrolling of kitten reels (no, read again — not kitten heels). We grew up with Pokémon and Studio Ghibli, Barbie and Polly Pocket, Sonny Angels and the Care Bears—– I could go on with this list forever. And still, the exhibition invites us to look at what we consider cute from a different perspective: to acknowledge its power for manipulation, comfort, and provocation. And to summarise: If you’re in Rotterdam anytime until the end of November, you have the perfect chance to visit the ideal place to show off your new Labubu keychain, so hurry up!