'Pika - Bunny' by Christophe de Rohan Chabot at Shore, Vienna

Innocent bunnies and Pikachu dwell on walls—both in Christophe de Rohan Chabot’s exhibition and in the duty-free section that you find in any international airport. Stuffed animals used by children and that—in the adult-content world, not even necessarily in explicitly graphic porn, but anything that is not supposed for kids—contemporaneously have a subliminal erotic connotation, playing with your sentiments, inner self, and (concealed) fantasies. It is not about blatant sex and play, but about play that has forms of soft porn inherent to it. And is consuming products, or goodies, or luxuries not like watching porn: configured as a same-day delivery satisfaction? For de Rohan Chabot, bunnies and Pikachu are inanimate pets with an inclination toward an erotic imaginary—which almost makes them sort of taboo objects, as it is kids who usually play with them. The one bunny whose ears have been removed is reminiscent of a phallic structure, mute references to Paul McCarthy’s butt plugs, and also Jeff Koon’s actual bunnies—the master of turning this pet into a luxury commodity. The adultification of an infantile item might also be further applicable to the media and the world at-large, where everything has to be commodified and sexualized—or first sexualized to then be turned into a product. 

Bunnies and Pikachu dwell on walls; their innocence is bygone. 

— Claire Koron Elat