Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy 2016

Ben Frost made this artwork, sometime around 2010, appropriating images of Ren and Stimpy on the packaging for an Epinephrine injection. The cartoon is rendered in bright, flat colors with bold black outlines. It reminds me of Pop Art, but with a subversive twist, like the artist is trying to get our attention by making something both playful and disturbing. Look at how the characters are jammed together. The composition is tight, almost claustrophobic. Ren’s manic eyes and Stimpy’s drool are juxtaposed with the sterile, clinical language of the packaging, creating a really unsettling contrast. The bright pink and yellow jump out, but it’s the line work that really makes the image pop. I think you could make an argument that this piece is a descendant of Warhol. The use of recognizable cartoon figures creates an immediate connection with the viewer, only to disrupt it with the ominous implications of the medicine, leaving us to consider the absurdities and anxieties of modern life.