The Daffy Formula: Cosima von Bonin and the Principle of “Joyful Failure”

Cologne-based artist Cosima von Bonin, labelled the “uncrowned Cartoon Queen” by author and film critic Daniel Kothenschulte, has addressed the estrangement of the everyday in her work for many years. In doing so, she strikes an equally playful and precise balance between seemingly opposing worlds: her works offer references from pop culture, fashion, film and theatre – from Britney Spears to René Pollesch. Comic and cartoon figures serve as recurring conveyors of meaning.

“The Daffy Formula: To be a Daffy, a character must first and foremost be like Daffy. Not only must they be congenitally selfish, devious, grandiose, and craven, but all of these characteristics must be magnified to grotesque proportions due to the pointed cruelty of the universe.”

Katharina Dom (ed.), Cosima von Bonin, Feelings, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Cologne 2024, p. 154

Daffy Duck as a Key Figure in Cosima von Bonin’s Work

One key figure is the lisping Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes, an eccentric antihero whose consistent failure turns into productive repetition, thus embodying the principle of “joyful failure”.

The textile works Dandy Doc (The Apprentice #5) from 2009 and Doc Daffy from 2025, offered here for sale, engage with the cartoon figure in different ways and exemplify Bonin’s characteristic textile series, which has been part of the artist’s central body of work since the 2000s.

Dandy Doc: Daffy Duck in an Iconically Exaggerated Pose

In Dandy Doc, presented at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2010, among other venues, Daffy Duck is clearly identifiable even from a distance despite his simplified contours. In an iconically exaggerated pose – with raised shoulders, clenched fists and pushing back on his heels – the white figure appears embedded in distinctly separate fabric segments.

Doc Daffy: Figure and Ground in a Deep Black Pictorial Space

Doc Daffy, on the other hand, stages the black drake as a half-figure against a deep black, velvety ground. The pictorial space functions not as a stage but as an absorbing area: bill, eyes and neck rings stand out almost in relief through the strong contrast of colour, while the rest of the plumage virtually merges with the background.

In doing so, the relationship between figure and ground is deliberately set against the tradition of portraiture. Instead of highlighting the figure through contrast, the chromatic convergence leads to a partial dissolution into the background.

Textile Panels and Collective Authorship in Cosima von Bonin’s Work

Bonin’s textile “Panels” – once self-deprecatingly referred to as “rags” – are often created from various fabrics with different patterns, sewn together and shaped by haute couture seamstresses, and finally stretched onto frames.

The artist views her practice as a collective process and, under the motto “we are many”, subverts the traditional ideal of singular authorship.

“Doc”, Daffy Duck and Looney Tunes References

The word “Doc” in both titles – an informal term of address in American English meaning “buddy” – evokes the famous greeting used by Daffy Duck’s rival, Bugs Bunny: “What’s up, doc?”

In addition, the title can be read as an allusion to the classic Looney Tunes cartoon Daffy Doc from 1938 by Bob Clampett. “Doc” as slang for “Doctor” and “Daffy” as “crazy” together mean “the crazy doctor”, underscoring the humorous, ironic dimension of Bonin’s appropriation of the character.

Cosima von Bonin on Daffy Duck

Bonin herself describes Daffy – who oscillates between megalomania and failure – as a role model:

“(...) I would love to be like Daffy. The first Daffy story that caught my attention: Daffy and Bugs Bunny are in a crevice, and Daffy Duck keeps shoving him further in, shouting, ‘It’s mine, it’s all mine!’”

Cosima von Bonin, quoted in Daniel Kothenschulte, “Adlerauge und Adlerohr”, in: Monopol Magazine, No. 5, 2023, pp. 58–73, p. 69.

In Cosima von Bonin’s Daffy works, cartoon figure, textile practice, pop culture and the principle of “joyful failure” come together. Daffy Duck becomes a recurring conveyor of meaning within an oeuvre that links the estrangement of the everyday with questions of figure and ground, authorship and appropriation.