The cursed and the wicked: Kawaii agency's "CURSED GALLERY" offers a home for the unsettling, uncanny and the hopeful
Opened on the 5th of July at Take Courage Gallery in New Cross, London. The Cursed Gallery welcomes digital culture enthusiasts and the unhinged.
Created by Kawaii Agency (founded by Bart Seng Wen Long and Julius Grabianski in 2021), the two have curated both physical and digital exhibitions with an emphasis on giving a platform to up-and-coming artists. Left with a lingering taste of sweetness from their past exhibitions, friends of Kawaii Agency waited eagerly. The posters leading up to the event alone welcomed a nostalgic wave and chuckle from the internet-fluent, and peaked the curiosity of those who are still at the footbridges of the digital margins. Featuring images such as a fridge full of miniature male swimmers figurines, the exhibition harkens back to the days of shit-posting and the uncanny. Saturated with talent, the exhibition featured works from Ana Viktoria Dzinic, AP Nguyen, Muzi, Liv Wood, Guillermina Ricci, Molar.28, Bart Seng Wen Long, and Juliuz Grabianski as they turned the cursed into hypnotic physical manifestations. A car crash viewing with the visceral cocktail of unease, horror, repulsion and bewilderment, the work regurgitates and vomits up jumbled elements of today's busy world. When first entering the gallery, you're welcomed with an image of a stern faced priest holding a cross with the text "Stop posting satanic AI- generated images" in a standard Arial. Satire is ripe across the gallery. Imagine elements you recognise-such as the infamous Louis Vuitton branding etched on AP Nguyen's moving piece, but contextualised on a brown cockroach, oscillating around the space, bumping into the ankles of visitors. The term 'Cursed image', originating from a 2015 Tumblr blog, refers to pictures perceived as eery and uncomfortable due to its sheer lack of context - oftentimes making a person question the reason for the image's existence in the first place. Like a captured dreamscape, the Cursed Gallery was no exception as it evoked feelings of familiarity from the recesses of the online world. Stripping back any pre-ordained feelings of constraint, acting as a release. A media vomit. Seemingly random and eery at first glance- but in comparison to the reality we're faced with when we step back out into the street, maybe the cursed isn't that far off to normality.