Paul McCarthy's 'Heidi' Video: A Nightmare Alpine Chalet

In 1992, Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley transformed Vienna's Galerie Krinzinger into a film studio, constructing an alpine chalet for a video adaptation of Johanna Spyri's 1880 novel 'Heidi.' The 62-minute 47-second video, titled 'Heidi,' is divided into six chapters: 'Rural Gothic,' 'Frankfurt, Frankfurt,' 'Kinship Study,' 'Ornament and Education,' 'Sickness as Decoration,' and 'Pickle Barrel.' Unlike the idyllic novel, the Californian artists' version is a gory nightmare reminiscent of 'The Evil Dead' (1981). McCarthy and Kelley wear frightening masks, portraying characters as perverse or mentally disabled. Kelley's signature use of stuffed animals turns childhood dreams into nightmares. The work critiques the sanitized world of Disney and mass media, typical of the 1990s Los Angeles art scene nurtured by John Baldessari and Chris Burden. The video is part of the exhibition 'Monsieur McCarthy, que prenez-vous dans votre thé ?' organized by Le Miroir and Théâtre auditorium (Tap) in Poitiers, linked to the Rencontres Michel Foucault, and interrupted by the pandemic. The video is in the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris.