Heil Kitty: weaponising cuteness to shame neo-Nazis
You can’t help but wonder what Astrid Lindgren – the social democrat and creator of feminist hero Pippi Longstocking – would make of Herr Nilsson. Not her Herr Nilsson (Pippi’s monkey companion), but the anonymous Swedish street artist who recently painted a scene of swastika-raising cartoon characters on the wall of an old glue factory.
Then again, the artist Herr Nilsson has always combined the childish and the controversial – from his gun- and knife-wielding Disney princesses on the street corners of Stockholm, to a mural of Mickey Mouse raising the peace sign at Osama bin Laden, and the latest paintings of Hello Kitty characters raising a swastika and burning a heart-printed flag, sugar-coated shock is Herr’s stock in trade.
“I’m always looking for strong symbols and iconic images from history and popular culture,” says Herr. “Then I put them together to give them new meaning.” In the case of Burning Love and Hell Kitty, the political meaning is almost as cartoonish as the imagery itself; the rise of neo-Nazis in Europe today is a disgrace. The Hello Kitty characters take on the famous pose of American soldiers in Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, only this time they’re raising a Nazi standard. Which is why Herr has chosen this week – the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – to release it. “In the articles next to the ones about Auschwitz, I have read about the advancing neo-Nazis,” explains Herr. “It pisses me off, so I reacted with these two paintings.”
According to the BBC, more than 180 people have been killed in rightwing attacks in Germany over the last 20 years, and neo-Nazis have murdered more people in postwar Germany than any other single group, including Islamists and the far left, but this is “yet to be reflected in official data”. The pasted paintings of Herr Nilsson are a counterpoint to the pro-Nazi murals found in Jamal, a village in northern Germany that has been almost completely taken over by the far right. Perhaps, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Herr Nilsson is reminding us not to take our eye off this other, homegrown threat. “The human being always seems to balance on the thin line between love or hate,” says Herr. “I included Hello Kitty because she is so harmless, symbolising goodness and friendship. But in my art pieces she is outrageous; blinded by hatred, she has transformed into a mad rebel fighting against love, peace and understanding.”
Are these paintings politically stimulating, or simply offensive and culturally insensitive? Is it really acceptable to make a paint-and-paste satire of neo-Nazism? Can we trust that viewers get the joke? “All my paintings have to communicate their message through a great laugh, together with a deep darkness,” says Herr. “If an image doesn’t have both, I won’t let it pass through. I wouldn’t do a painting that makes fun of victims from the Holocaust or sexual abuses without any other purpose than just mocking with them.” Context, he continues, is also key: “If I had pasted the Hell Kitty on a Jewish gravestone, the final reading would have been totally different.”
Instead, Hell Kitty and Burning Love have been pasted on a crumbling wall of the old Spånga glue factory in Stockholm. “It’s an area that leads your thoughts to a city demolished by war,” says Herr. “The glue factory has been abandoned for a long time and is a unique place for many Stockholm-based graffiti artists to do their paintings.” Does he seek permission? “I’m a street artist and visual activist,” he replies. “I don’t ask for permission.”
While a bunch of super-kitsch Japanese cartoon characters raising a swastika in the pose of the American victory at Iwo Jima is a smorgasbord of potential political offence, Herr seems adamant about his principles. “I was asked to paint Snow White wielding a gun but with big boobs, to sell more paintings,” says Herr. “I turned down the offer. One of my intentions when I painted the Dark Princesses was to make them revolt against stereotype norms about how we should look and behave.” And sales of Hell Kitty? How are they going? “I’ve sold about 20 prints.”
Not bad for a fictional monkey.
• See more images on Herr Nilsson’s Facebook page and Instagram account @nilsson_herr
Comments