It’s hard to say what’s more outrageous, the kitty porn videotape, the miniature fire escape stolen from Sarah Sze, or Xerxes the cat doing an unscheduled performance in the litter boxes at the opening.
Well the whole show — Cat Kulchur at FLUXspace — is outrageous, so prize giving is beside the point. The artists of FLUXspace have installed The Flux Space Museum of Contemporary Culture, with two named galleries, The Ben Huh Gallery (named for the man who runs the popular icanhascheezburger.com website and The Harold Weir Gallery (named for the Freaks and Geeks character?).
Museum admission is free and you get a round museum button to wear — re-purposed PMA admission buttons. A video lounge in the freight elevator looks like grandma’s living room with a comfy chair, a cat stuffed animal to hold on your lap and a television playing something that looks like it could be on Martha Stewart’s channel if she has one.
A middle aged woman instructs you how to hold a cat; how to scratch it behind the ears, on the rump, on the belly. First she uses a stuffed animal to demonstrate, and then she switches to a grey tabby — that’s when it gets weird. The cat is so submissive to all the scratching and holding it seems either lobotomized or drugged. And the way the woman holds the cat, well, let’s just say I’ve never seen anyone stroke cats the way she suggests.
It’s a new frontier of cat-human interactions. More than one viewer I talked with was weirded out by this. What’s really funny is that this video is just another DIY enterprise by someone wanting to share and make a little money. Whatever you do (barring nudity), you can find an audience for it on YouTube.
The museum is open to Aug. 15. it’s fun — you should go. There will be additional programming for the show — schedule not available yet, but soon, on the gallery’s website.
More photos at flickr.
