Artists

DaddyBears, Dean JF Hoy, Ted Le Swer

Press release

Soup presents the gallery’s tenth exhibition, ‘Welcome To The Island Of Misfit Toys’, featuring new artworks by DaddyBears, Dean JF Hoy and Ted Le Swer.

“Welcome to the island of misfit toys”, says Emma Watson in the 2012 Stephen Chbosky directed adaptation of his 1999 coming of age novel The Perks of Being A Wallflower, as she welcomes Logan Lerman’s Charlie to the fold of their particular pack of high-school outcasts. The greeting itself, often found online in the form of an inspirational quote set against the backdrop of a misty mountain or lake, isn’t actually evidenced in the original YA literature, however given Chbosky’s presence as the film’s screenwriter, we can take it as canon in his own island of introverted adolescence.

Earlier reference to ‘An Island of Misfit Toys’ can be witnessed in the stop-motion animated world of 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as a location where unloved, unwanted or toys deemed defective are sent. The empathy felt towards such an island and its exiled inhabitants spawned a stand-alone spin-off TV special as well as much accompanying merchandise. In both pop-cultural cases, the phrase more metaphorically represents a space for those who feel left out, out of place or otherwise othered by society at large. It hints at a secret, safe haven where one can find counsel, consolation and community, where difference is celebrated and acceptance emphasised. Such sentiment can be recognised in the work and practices of artists DaddyBears, Dean JF Hoy and Ted Le Swer.