Splashback Rhizome 1998-2002.

Splashback: Rhizome’s Splash Pages, 1998-2002.
Mouchette’s standard biography reads: “My name is Mouchette. I am an artist. I live in Amsterdam. I am nearly 13 years old.” Her deadpan expression of innocence is a setup devised to heighten the impact of her dark, violent art. In Kill That Cat, a quivering image of a cat’s fanged, open maw, accompanied by a soundtrack of an awful howl, traps the viewer in committing a virtual act of violence. The only way to move away from the page to reach Rhizome is by clicking a button commanding the animal’s death, which sends users to a message board and asks them to confess to their “crime” before they can proceed to Rhizome’s home page.