Patrick Goddard ‘Whoopsie’s Dream‘

Patrick Goddard ‘Home Invasion’ [22.03.2024] @ Seventeen Gallery

‘Political’ art is difficult to get right. It is often takes itself far too seriously. And when it tries to be funny, it risks descending into hopeless nihilism. Goddard’s black comedy manages to find the right tone: he pokes fun at xenophobia in a way that makes you think (and smile).

As the name suggests, the exhibition is centred on the idea of home, which usually has positive connotations (turn this house into a home, home is where the heart is, etc). But when we dig deeper, the home is predicated on exclusion, on the ability to decide who belongs inside of it. Just think about the nation as a home and the exclusions that accompany the policing of borders.

The fraught politics of home come across most effectively in Goddard’s video installation, his second to feature Whoopsie, Britain’s most entertaining Bichon Frisé. A very talkative, very reactionary Bichon Frisé. The main scene is a model train set, featuring an idealised 1960s British town. Against this backdrop, Whoopsie is recounting a nightmare she had about the invasion of her home and body by ‘wild’ animals – insects lodging in her fur, giant slugs desecrating the town’s war memorial.

Goddard is not the first to draw connections between animal invasion imagery and racism. But I haven’t seen anyone satirise it in such a playful way. He completely completely disarms these racist tropes, revealing the deep unconscious desires that ultimately drive fear of the Other.