Darren Cullen (artist)


Darren Cullen is a British artist and political cartoonist whose artwork satirises topics ranging from the insidious nature of advertising, from the culpability of the Santa lie to armed forces recruitment propaganda.
In 2014, his anti-army recruitment comic was added to the Victoria and Albert Museum permanent collection.

Art

Cullen came to prominence as a student in 2005 when his plan to erect a billboard that attacked the commercialisation of Christmas was scrapped. Cullen says his 2012 work Baby's First Baby was about "the way these toys intrinsically train girls to have and care for children while they are still only children themselves". In 2014, Cullen opened a shop installation called 'Pocket Money Loans' in Finsbury Park at Atom Gallery. A payday loan shop for kids, which appeared to give children an advance on their pocket money at 5000% interest. In 2015, he took the work to Banksy's Dismaland, opening the shop in a portacabin next to the children's play area.
In 2015, alongside Veterans for Peace UK he released a series of films called Action Man: Battlefield Casualties. Directed by Price James, featuring Matt Berry and written by Cullen, the films parody '90s Action Man toy adverts to draw attention to the possible outcomes of military service through three short 'adverts' for PTSD Action Man, Paralysed Action Man and Dead Action Man. They were part of a campaign by Veterans for Peace UK to raise the British military age of recruitment from 16 to 18, in line with other European and NATO countries.

Music

Cullen played drums in the bands Shitdisco and Age of Consent. While a member of Shitdisco, he worked with the Japanese idol group 80_pan to compose and arrange the song "crazy", released on the 2008 album DISCO BABY.

Writing

Cullen co-wrote a monthly satirical 'horoscopes' column with Mark Tolson for The Skinny magazine until 2017.