‘Overloaded with urges, Paul McCarthy’s work shocks because it is foremost human. Human? His ambition to take to bits our sense is obvious. The politeness of Pinocchio even more refined by the lie overflows here with intentions both comical and tragic, but also burlesque. The work of Paul McCarthy affects me because it integrates in a roaring manner these three facts of mankind as if the hero had plunged into a somewhat disturbed cartoon.’

These are the words of Martine Sitbon herself, who has presented the 1994 video installation of  artist Paul McCarthy’s work “PinocchioPipenose Householddilemma” in her issue, A#5.

McCarthy’s work references and bastardises Disney and other cartoon characters, placing them in absurdist situations that compliment and subvert their character traits, demonstrating both an enforcement and subversion of their traditional roles.

“My work came out of kids’ television in Los Angeles. I didn’t go through Catholicism and World War II as a teenager, I didn’ t live in a European environment. People make references to Viennese art without really questioning the fact that there is a big difference between ketchup and blood. I never thought of my work as shamanistic. My work is more about being a clown than a shaman.”"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znc9V0k8E8Q[/youtube]