John Cake / Dead Cats and A Kinky Bus Pass at HOME

John Cake / Dead Cats and A Kinky Bus Pass explores the intricacies of daily life, personal rituals, and processing the symptoms of living artistically and autistically. John‘s art revels in the nuances that shape our existence, challenging conventions and finding meaning in society’s debris, errors, and redundancies.

The title of the exhibition is in memory of John‘s cat Sheldon and testament to the connection between humans and their pets. Our pets are where we find protection and companionship, whilst the dream of acquiring a ‘Kinky Bus Pass’ alludes to the dream for endless journeys that transcend the barriers of everyday life and take us somewhere new. It is through embracing the absurd and unconventional, that we can find the space to exist authentically and be completely free.

John processes the subtleties of existence, unravelling daily life by creating a wild-style mind map with a web of visual fragments that resist and relinquish authority. John’s work flips between digital and analogue techniques to abstract, clip, collide and layer disparate elements. Through embracing the abstract and incidental moments in their life, John finds a way to bring these elements together to set off a domino effect of multiple connections and anecdotes.

Rich in symbolism, the colours of red, blue and purple in John’s paintings signify the formerly rare and expensive pigments historically used by empires and the church to exert their power. John reclaims these colours to create a narrative of resilience by creating their own personal kingdom within their own domestic setting.

In John‘s world, they watch as the neighbourhood cats mark their territories and their pet cat Sheldon perches high on top of a pile of garden rubbish. The knock-off cartoons that frequent John’s work offer a sense of familiarity and escapism when unexpected grocery substitutions arrive to disrupt the day.

About John Cake
John Cake is an artist based in Manchester and has been making work for over 25 years. Their work is a neurodivergent way of processing the impacts of class, religion and power — using painting, printing, digital technologies and installation to create densely layered webs of vibrant, almost abstract imagery. Their work has been exhibited in galleries all over the world, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, and the Kunsthalle Bergen. John recently received the ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ fund from Arts Council England.