Photograph by Katherine Bish
These are not your mommy's teddy bears. With their assorted horns, claws, fangs and weeping wounds, a new wave of stuffed animals is melding the cute and the grotesque. Artist David Wolk calls them "Crammed Organisms," and that's also the name of the ambitious art event he's arranged to showcase these newschool "plushies" in June (crammedorganisms.com). Close to 700 little monsters stitched up by alternative crafters the world over will invade four separate locations in St. Louis this month.
"Teddy bears wearing raincoats are our parents' generation," explains Wolk. "Our generation is zombies with blood coming out of their mouths." Even so, some of these creepy cuddlies are just adorable. The successful Uglydoll line has hooked kids from Topeka to Tokyo, and there are a good number of formerly and currently disaffected youth making their own one-of-a-kind stuffed freaky buddies.
"All around the world, plush creation by young, hip people is booming," avers Wolk, who also owns Cherokee Street funky junque shop Cranky Yellow. "People who have never used a sewing machine or picked up a piece of felt are going to the craft stores and getting their stuff together and making these insane stuffed animals."
And has he ever made something so disturbing that he managed to scare himself? "Yes," he says, "and those are the ones I keep in my bedroom. They won't let me sleep until I get my work done."
