Dark Mofo Festival: Extremity, of course, is the point

This is Giant Teddy...If you squint, it almost looks like Paddington Bear – if Paddington Bear was a mammoth machine designed to kill.

The seven-metre-tall Giant Teddy by EJ Son at the 2023 Dark Mofo festival. Photograph: Rosie Hastie

Dark Mofo

The ominous allure of the teddy bear in art: ‘We all just want to be babies’

Two works at this year’s Dark Mofo festival recast children’s toys in a menacing light – a tradition that has a long history in pop culture