Be Good

August 29, 2007

Nirmala Nataraj 

What kind of kid reads fairy tales anymore, when cautionary fables abound via the Internet and spectacles like To Catch a Predator? All the same, Kate Eric (an artist twosome, Kate Tedman and Eric Siemens) are a sort of Hieronymus Bosch for the tween set. They offer up a garden of monstrous delights (paintings, posters, and sculptural objects) featuring the kind of age-old scary monster tropes recognizable to this very day, whether in a chat room or a Brothers Grimm tome. Kate Eric's current exhibition, “Stories for Bad Children,” is full of the kind of spectral oddities and jackbooted apparitions that populate the nocturnal lives of freaked tots everywhere. The 16 paintings, which sport titles like The Tongue of Terror and Failure of the Fathers, range from outlining the oppressive prohibitions of the nuclear family to navigating the abysmal unknown. Giant anacondas, quivering intestinal tracts, furry placentas, monsters giving birth to rooster heads, and a medley of other hellhounds offer a visceral, almost sexual interpretation of fear and the hazards of growing up. Kate Eric reveal that while the bogeyman might have taken on a new form, he's still alive and well.

Starts: Sept. 6. Daily, 2007