A gallery employee poses next to a Hello Kitty installation during a photocall of the exhibition CUTE at Somerset House in London on Wednesday. For the exhibition’s curator, Claire Catterall, the concept of cute is so vast that she struggles to define it. Photo: AFP“The exhibition unpacks what cuteness is, so it’s a very slippery scene,” she said. The CUTE exhibition is sponsored by Japanese company Sanrio Co, which globally markets merchandise of the feline-inspired character Hello Kitty, created about 50 years ago. Visitors meander under an archway adorned with the character’s likeness, walls blanketed in colorful plush toys, before shimmying under the Hello Kitty disco’s glitter ball.
