Daddy nose best

When Tate Liverpool held the first UK retrospective of Paul McCarthy's work two years ago, it issued an adults-only warning. This was understandable, since during many of McCarthy's videobased performances, he variously attempts to fornicate with a jar of mayonnaise, rubs tomato ketchup (a favourite motif) over his penis, lavishes melted chocolate over his bottom and excretes raw sausages, which he then proceeds to eat.

Though nothing excites interest like a bit of sexual perversity, visitors new to the LA artist's work must have felt a tad uncomfortable in their role of gallery-going voyeur.

But perhaps this discomfort wasn't just down to the work's literal content: McCarthy's various manic actions, bleakly comic as they occasionally are, also seem such unbearably tortured howls in the dark.

So, however benign a couple of huge inflatable Disneyesque figures appear, you know there must be something of a 'dark edge' to them.

In Daddies Bighead, Pinocchio sports several noses (a predictable configuration of penises?), while his body is shaped like a big ketchup bottle. Blockhead, a rectangular-headed Pinocchio mutant, stands next to him at 35m high. You can walk into it and buy some specially made candy from the two dispensers provided. You can even take your kids.

But don't expect the Pied Piper to be lying in wait - this time, McCarthy comes unarmed. And as for subverting Disney? After so many years of excessive abuse, surely even Walt himself must be tired of turning in his grave by now?

Until Oct 26, Tate Modern (North End entrance), Bankside SE1, free. Tel: 020 7887 8008. Tube: Southwark/Blackfriars