Search

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Three Graces, Two Censors, and One Sex Doll: Welcome to Fringe’s Most Outrageous Art Attack

6 Aug 2025

Just when you thought Edinburgh had exhausted every Fringe publicity stunt – from nudity in the Meadows to interpretive dance in Lidl – along come two Japanese theatre companies who have taken subtlety, given it a swift chisel, and slapped black censor bars across Antonio Canova’s The Three Graces. For a brief, glorious moment, the National Galleries Scotland resembled a prudish episode of Art Attack, courtesy of Theatre Group Gumbo and Book of Shadowz. Their new show, Shunga Alert, seems determined to throw modesty and taste under the same speeding rickshaw.

Nothing says Fringe like censoring a Neoclassical threesome in a national gallery

According to the official release – and confirmed by photographic evidence – the companies covered the sculpture’s serene nudity with hilariously insufficient black modesty panels. These are not panels you could nick from a leisure centre changing room. Think more along the lines of a graphic-design PowerPoint malfunction, applied with the precision of a tipsy intern. Flanking the sculpture were three performers dressed in a hybrid of cosplay, clown gear, and what looked like the aftermath of an Ayacon sample sale. The result was absurd enough that if Duchamp were alive, he might have sued for emotional copyright.

The image makes for a pitch-perfect teaser for Shunga Alert, a self-described “filthy, hilarious and genuinely informative” show at Underbelly Cowgate. Co-created by Gumbo and Book of Shadowz (formerly the criminally underrated Mochinosha Puppet Company), it promises absurd clowning, physical theatre, and intricate handmade shadow puppetry – because nothing says erotic heritage quite like a sex doll named Pleasure and an AI called Pain.

The title refers to shunga, the Japanese tradition of erotic art that once delighted the Edo period and now terrifies the easily offended. Rather than simply exhibit it, Shunga Alert brings the art to life with projection, puppetry, and a plot about an aspiring artist on a libido-fuelled mission to create the ultimate erotic masterpiece. If that sounds like a particularly avant-garde episode of Robot Chicken, you are not far off.

There is no false advertising. The release makes clear it is bold, adults-only, and features a sex doll with a character arc. Following a Best of the Fest nod at the 2024 San Diego Fringe, Shunga Alert has erupted onto the scene in a riot of shadow, satire, and sex. A meticulously choreographed riot, mind you, with projections handmade in the traditional Ukiyo-e style. Yes, amid the knob gags, there is genuine craft – something many Fringe comedies could not locate with a flashlight and a map.

As for the stunt? It is cheap, it is cheeky, and it works better than most £12,000 Instagram ad campaigns. By slapping censor bars on one of Scotland’s most serene sculptures, these artists have done what the Fringe does best – startle, provoke, and make us laugh out loud in a public space where we probably should not.

God help us all if the National Galleries ever let them near a Rodin.

Related to this article: