How Skibidi Toilet made it into this prestigious Brisbane gallery

Flush from its viral success on YouTube, divisive series Skibidi Toilet is taking on the contemporary art world at Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art.

Don’t know what Skibidi Toilet is? We didn’t either.

How did Skibidi Toilet end up in a contemporary art gallery?

Skibidi Toilet been described as a cultural touchstone for Gen Alpha, which is people born between 2010 and 2024.

It’s a 3D computer-graphics series created by 26-year-old Russian-Georgian content creator Alexey Gerasimov, featuring animated toilets with talking heads who are trying to take over the world. Yes, you read that correctly.

Brisbane Times headed into Fortitude Valley to check out the intriguing exhibit and were shocked at the way the absurd video drew us in.

Maybe it was the surround sound and dark room, but our experience removed our scepticism over whether the video belonged in a gallery.

After a few minutes of Skibidi, we had to go outside and touch grass (as the kids would say). It really did feel otherworldly in a way we were not expecting.

The director of University of Queensland’s centre for digital cultures and societies, Dr Nicholas Carah, explains it.

“These heads popping out of toilets … somehow exemplify the torrential creator cultures that have been incubated in the attention economy of digital platforms over the past two decades,” he said.

Perhaps what Carah means is that absurdity online is becoming increasingly common as 15-second videos dominate social feeds and our attention spans dwindle.

Despite the implausibility of the video series, it has entered the internet culture zeitgeist, amassing 18 billion views. It consists of 25 seasons and 77 episodes.

Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art champions contemporary artists including Skibidi Toilet creator Alexey Gerasimov.

Where does “skibidi” come into it? The toilets featured in the video series are “skibidi toilets” – but the official definition of “skibidi” isn’t set in stone. It can be used to describe anything, apparently.

This kind of content is often described as “brain rot”, a term for low-quality, low-value internet content that became Oxford University’s 2024 word of the year.

The intersection of internet culture with more highbrow settings is becoming more popular.

Senator Fatima Payman left parliamentarians stunned and the internet laughing at her attempt at a “brain rot” speech last year in the Senate. The Greens’ Nick McKim, 59, bravely called it a “skibidi speech”.

But the Brisbane gallery jumped at the opportunity to showcase Skibidi Toilet as part of its Quarter One exhibits despite its reputation.

Brisbane Institute of Modern Art director Robert Leonard asked his team what content creators outside the art world might be making. Assistant director Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer immediately thought of Skibidi Toilet.

The series is being shown alongside the Quarter One program including 2024 Venice Biennale winner Archie Moore.

Visitors at the Institute of Modern Art can purchase Skibidi Toilet merch at the gallery’s store.Credit: Neesha Sinnya

Aloisio-Shearer said the video exhibit would be a gateway for young people to engage with contemporary art.

“I remember being a disaffected young person myself and my way out of that was through art, particularly those artworks which were transgressive, strange, that turned the world up on its head,” he said.

“We thought that giving it an institutional framework in the gallery, presenting it in its entirety, might let people who would otherwise dismiss it as trivial take it seriously, and for those young people who identify with it to feel like their ideas are also worth taking seriously,” he said.

He said while the video series was completely different from what visitors might expect, it was important not to undermine the series’ impact.

“We don’t often show work that is born from the vernacular context of social media,” he said.

“But Skibidi Toilet has proven to be an enormous cultural phenomenon and it seems dangerous to ignore its impact.”

Odette Miller, the assistant director in marketing and development, said the series has been a hit with schoolchildren who had increasingly visited the gallery after school to see the internet series on the big screen.

And she said it resonated with parents who recognised the phrase from their kids.

“An enormous factor in Skibidi’s success is its community, fans who create videos explaining the intricate lore of its world and the connections between the characters, many of whom are destroyed mere seconds after being introduced,” Aloisio-Shearer said.

To understand what the exhibit means for Brisbane’s art scene, I asked Aloisio-Shearer his thoughts.

“It means we’re where we belong. We’re the canary in the mineshaft of culture.”

Skibidi Toilet is showing at the Institute of Modern Art in Fortitude Valley until April 10.

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