Ups And Downs #9 2013

Curator: Right, let’s dive into this one. What we're looking at here is "Ups And Downs #9" created in 2013 by KAWS. Editor: Whoa. It’s like a candy-colored explosion. In my gut, I get a nostalgic Saturday-morning-cartoon kind of feeling. Is it supposed to feel happy or menacing? I can't decide. Curator: KAWS often blends playful imagery with more profound themes. Notice the recurring motif of crossed-out eyes? Those Xs have become his signature, often interpreted as a commentary on blindness, ignorance, or even mortality. Editor: Okay, that darkens the cheerfulness. The X-ed out eyes are unnerving. You can’t miss those bold colors though. How do the colors figure into the whole deal, in your opinion? Curator: I think the chromatic boldness speaks to the nature of commodification in the digital age. And I also see connections to pop art and street art aesthetics – Basquiat and Haring for instance, who leveraged simplified, graphic forms to get their message across. Editor: Yeah, that rings true. This is very clean. Polished. Like a super-flattened Warhol screenprint but a lot more menacing! I feel that cartoon quality tugging at something primal... Curator: His pieces often explore appropriation, re-contextualizing familiar characters to evoke new meanings. Those ‘characters’ aren't rendered completely whole, more as disassembled iconography for our age of mass-media oversaturation. Editor: Hmm… disassembled. I love that. So you are suggesting that his flattening might invite the viewer to unpack the icon in more depth? Curator: Precisely! By distorting or obscuring, he compels a closer look at the cultural narratives these figures embody. Consider the work’s title in relation to all of this; is KAWS presenting to the viewer a new set of modern dilemmas? Editor: And by putting that cute sheen on everything, does it almost dare us to grapple with those difficult “ups and downs”? It's quite genius, really. Curator: Well, on that thoughtful note, I feel like we have barely scratched the surface... Editor: Me too. I could stare at it for hours. And maybe feel differently each time. Thanks for untangling it for me—at least a little.