Family Tyranny

Paul McCarthy’s performance works address profoundly psychological issues of fear and desire. He often parodies powerful men, in public and in the family. “Family Tyranny” originated in a grant given to Paul McCarthy to make a video about child abuse.  Access to a local TV station for a couple of days enabled him to create both films, “Family Tyranny” and “Cultural Soup”, which are often shown together. A stage set was built to resemble a sitcom studio. McCarthy invited the artist Mike Kelly to participate in front of the camera on one of the recording days. His instructions were simple: Kelly would play the son and McCarthy the father. There was no other script.