796 www.thelancet.com/oncology Vol 15 July 2014

Cancer and Society

Kimo Kawa Cancer Baby was exhibited at Ren Space gallery in

Shanghai, China, from April 12 to June 11

Does artwork about cancer need to be highbrow in order to be meaningful? That, among other contentious issues, is something Chinese artist Lu Yang explores in her latest exhibit Kimo Kawa Cancer Baby. The series, heavily infl uenced by Japanese anime, centres on the cartoon characters “Cancer Babies”, ultra-cute, childlike cancer cells with a simple wish: to live.

In one digital installation, colourful and cherubic Cancer Babies implore: “Please don’t kill us!” They’re framed within a shoot-em-up video game with laser guns pointed at rows of Cancer Baby cells. Their bulbous anime eyes glisten with tears and their stubby arms are raised up to their chubby cheek folds. Elsewhere, a video piece sees Cancer Baby stating: “zhong sheng ping deng”—everyone is equal.

This contrast between the cute and the morbid has been off -putting to some viewers. Says Lu: “Some people hate it because they hate cancer, and they think I’m using disease and death to make fun, but some people think we should face the reality [of cancer] and not avoid it”.

Lu, who recently had a relative pass away from cancer, had the latter response in mind when she created the concept of Kimo Kawa. From the outset, she wanted people to confront the uncomfortable “irony and cruelty of the realistic world that must be negotiated”. The works acknowledge the sides of cancer that aren’t typically considered—the mystery, the fascination it carries on a biological level, and the fact that cancer is a natural process.

The show is able to convey these mixed, multi-faceted messages thanks to the various medium that Lu uses. In addition to the digital artwork, Lu also hand-painted dozens of 3D-printed Cancer Baby cells and some slightly larger sculptures of grotesque human organs carrying Cancer Baby burdens. She calls these diseased and deformed organ characters “cancer Kaiju”, a Japanese word meaning “monster”. These

include a defeated-looking three-eyed stomach slouching forward as the tiny tentacles of Cancer Babies suck on to its back and legs, in much the same way children cling on to their parents from below.

Each of these painted sculptures has distinct colouring. Some are on the realistic side—bright red, bloody, with greenish-blue veins. Others are more fantastical, featuring bright metallics or psychedelic swirls of pastels.

In one room, petri dishes running down the length of a stainless steel lab table hold the most somber-looking part of the series—sprawling, unearthly, alien-looking shapes in blood red. Nothing cute or fantastical here. This part of the exhibit is a stark reminder of the ugly realities of cancer, lest the world of Cancer Babies takes on too frivolous a tone. Lu adds a professional microscope on each end of the table to add to the medical eff ect. The artist completed a residency at the University of Western Australia’s SymbioticA Lab, which may account for the medical feel of some of her sculptures. Whilst studying there, she found that “tissue culture and microscope technology, plus talking with neuroscientists about all the

ExhibitionCancer Baby: cancer meets Kawaii culture

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Cancer and Society

related [topics] always [held] my interest, especially disease”.

Despite the diff erent settings in tone, an original song from the Cancer Baby music video is always audible. Throughout the gallery, a chirpy voice can be heard singing jarring jingles like “we are happy cancer cells”. On the screen, buoyant baby cells latch on to various cancer Kaijiu, with captions like: “If you don’t like us anymore, you should never have borne us!” Uterus cancers, brain cancers, breast cancers, bladder cancers—each organ’s doleful eyes are buried under the chipper Cancer Babies that are taking over its hosts’ bodies. In another image on-screen, a small army of Cancer Babies dispatched from an unknown central unit chants “sha! sha! sha!” [kill! kill! kill!].

Rounding out the exhibit are colourful cancer baby plush dolls made of refl ective, shimmery material, in bright shades of lime green, raspberry, and orange. Lu also created chunky cancer cell rings and bracelets that she painted in colourful patterns. This jewellery, as well as cancer Kaiju

buttons, can be purchased, with some proceeds going into funds for cancer research.

Kimo Kawa Cancer Baby might be construed as macabre, but Lu believes that the best way to fi ght cancer is to do it with a bit of humour. Some of the invitees to her opening night included cancer patients, who received cancer cell rings as gifts. Says Lu:

“The cancer patients who attended the opening, they have to fi ght with the cancers or [have them] stay with them. They think we must face it and don’t fear it. At least this work may make people notice [that] the reality is, we all might get diseases and have to face death, but why so serious?”

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FilmLiving Funeral Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, Living Funeral by director Udoka Oyeka is designed to raise awareness about breast cancer in Africa, and was co-produced by the Pink Pearl Foundation, a Canadian non-profi t organisation, which also focuses on the needs of young women diagnosed with cancer. Living Funeral tells the story of a young woman, Yvonne, dying of breast cancer. During its brief 20 min runtime, we get to know her story from the perspective of several people aff ected by her condition. In voiceover narration, we hear the young woman herself, coming to grips with a death sentence before her life can barely be said to have begun; we also hear voiceovers from her twin sister as well as her mother.

The fi lm’s central premise is to bring Yvonne’s friends and family together to celebrate her life before she dies.

Oyeka’s direction is assured and stylish, with a highly saturated colour palette that often verges on the dreamlike, full of double exposures and other highly stylised eff ects that abandon naturalism for a more nuanced look at the emotional experiences of the characters. The acting likewise emphasises the emotional truth of the scenes, an apt choice for a fi lm about a vibrant young woman passing away before her time. The central characters of Yvonne and Yvette, the twin sisters at the heart of the story, are played by newcomer Stephanie Wilson. It’s an interesting choice that highlights the universality

of the story, with its subtle implication of life’s capriciousness. Liz Benson, a veteran actor in the Nigerian fi lm industry, plays the mother as someone who distracts herself from her grief by obsessing over domestic chores and cooking, trying to deny her daughter’s impending death.

The Nigerian fi lm industry, or Nollywood, has been active since the 1960s, but in the past few decades, the advent of cheap digital cameras has caused an explosion in fi lm production. Nollywood currently produces more feature fi lms than the USA, and just behind Bollywood. The fi lm industry in Nigeria earns more than US$5 billion annually, almost all from direct-to-video fi lms sold in markets in shops throughout Africa

Living FuneralDirected by Udoka Oyeka, 2013.Nigeria, 21 mins