Christian Blandhoel

Who on earth would let children play with Christian Blandhoel’s modified plush toys? Blandhoel has slashed open the toys’ stomachs and faces, emptied their stuffing, and outfitted them with grotesque male faces with scraggly beards, scowling stares, and smirking mouths. Some of them even have more or less erect penises hanging out. Nearly 60 in total, Blandhoel’s small FuckBears lie together in a heap, just as sweet and helpless as they are desperately horny and repulsive. The bears were created over several years and debuted as a joint installation in 2018. In another version, the bears also crop up in the artist’s videos, where their heads have this time been replaced by real animals’ heads or by modelled, monstrous faces. Blandhoel also dresses up as a giant teddy bear when he performs in the noise rock band Hello Friend.  
Blandhoel is interdisciplinary and explores fine art, performance, and noise-based/improvised music. He has also founded the Polyføkt music festival and the record company My First Record Label. SJH