DARK CHEUGY

Exhibition by Freena Kirppu & Zody Burke, with exhibition text by Maya Martinez.
NSFW Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden. Jan 31 - February 28, 2025.

Sculpture: Freena Kirppu & Zody Burke

“Dark Cheugy is the night shift nurse smoking cigarettes behind the hospital and

in the fluorescent light you see a halo gleaming around her as she scrolls on her

phone during her cigarette break, a meme of a minion rolls up on her screen, the

minion is in a bikini, sporting a devious smile, the floating black text above the

minion reads “I’m hiding from exercise” the black text below it delivering the

punch line “I’m in the fitness protection program” a smile erupts from the ageing

nurse’s face, she laughs a smokers laugh, hoarse, lived in, and reposts it onto

her facebook wall. She is earnest. She thinks “that’s so me” and it’s beautiful

because it’s true and it’s wonderful.

This is the gift of Dark Cheugy, an anarchist language of images, objects,

sentiments, born from the repurposing of the world given to us by Pixar and

Target. America has no heroes, so we improvise, recycling the trend forecasted

trash that is overproduced and dead by the next trend cycle. It is a sincere effort

to make meaning, it is a creative undertaking by all who engage in Dark Cheugy.

Dark Cheugy is what happens when we allow ourselves to dream. Dark Cheugy

plays with earnesty like a child plays with putty, pulling and spreading, smearing

it until the sincerity is thin and shining wet in the hands. Dark Cheugy is what we

put on when we want to fuck the bull. A shining ass hole, winking at us through

the muck. [...]

Covered in sweat I was lost in the woods. A juggalette found me, put a minion

bandaid on my wounded knee, leaning in, she kissed my forehead so sweetly,

that her boobs pushed into my face and I smelled her aura. [...]

Dark Cheugy is a form of communication with the dirt, the past, the earth, with

time. A scream back into the void. Time marked by objects, Dark Cheugy is a

language created to speak back to time, using only what was given to us. Dark

Cheugy enjoys itself. Dark Cheugy is your CVS receipt carved into the tablets

Moses came down the mountain with. It is finding a home for yourself in the

holes of the images we are forced to consume on a constant loop.”

- Maya Martinez

READ the full exhibition text HERE.

Left of door: Zody Burke. Right of door: Freena Kirppu.