LONDON, United Kingdom: From cats and plushies to emojis, a new central London exhibition opening on Thursday is exploring the "irresistible force" of "cuteness."

CUTENESS OVERLOAD A photograph taken on Jan. 24, 2024 shows a Hello Kitty installation during a photocall of the exhibition ‘CUTE’ at the Somerset House, central London. CUTE is the first major exhibition to examine the extraordinary and complex power of cuteness, featuring works by over 50 artists and contributors.Coinciding with Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary, the exhibition will bring together contemporary artworks, including new artist commissions and cultural phenomena, such as music, fashion, toys and video games. The exhibition will run from Jan. 25 to April 14, 2024. DANIEL LEAL / AFP

Even before the doors to "CUTE" opened at Somerset House, social media influencers in Japanese schoolgirl uniforms, "Hello Kitty" dresses and Pikachu hats playfully posed for photos, to charm their social media followers.

The exhibition blends art with an array of musical clips, video games and memes from social media, exploring a largely virtual culture that has swept across the globe with the explosion of the internet.

One room of "CUTE" is a tribute to cats, which make up some of the most viewed content on the internet, contrasting 19th century black and white feline photographs with futuristic AI-generated rainbow kitten portraits.

Further on, a collage of curly-haired Renaissance cherubs -- the original "cute babies" of art history -- intermingles with plush toys, mangas (Japanese comics) and iconic figures from the "kawaii" or cute culture that emerged in 20th-century Japan.

For Claire Catterall, the exhibition's curator, the concept of "cute" is so vast that she struggles to define it.

"The exhibition unpacks what cuteness is, so it's a very slippery scene," she told AFP."It's very hard to define. It's very tricky. And in many ways, that's the power of it. It's so many different things all at once."

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