Switch to Love
2021
Fabric, thread, beads and fibre fill
74cm x 29cm x 18cm
Reconstructing gaming devices out of soft materials, I explore how kawaii culture gamifies and commodifies romance and eros. Within the structure of Capitalism and Neoliberalism, the bishōjo and the romantic experience/service she provides are both rendered as available commodity. Today we gravitate towards mere positive pleasure and proximity, towards sweetness and comfort, rather than the secrecy and distance inherent in eros. To erase all negativity is to erase the Other, and consequently accelerates the pornification and infantilisation of society.



