Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art

October 7, 2006 to January 1, 2007

Situation Comedy is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by Independent Curators International (iCI), New York. The exhibition was curated by Dominic Molon and Michael Rooks. The exhibition, tour and catalogue are made possible, in part, by grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, with additional support from the iCI International Associates and the iCI independents.

This fall the MacKenzie Art Gallery will be launching a series of comedy themed exhibitions and programs with something for every age and comedic persuasion. The inspiration for this theme and one of our key fall exhibitions is Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art, organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International). Recently I had the opportunity to ask Dominic Molon (one of the curators), Susan Hapgood (iCI’s Director of Exhibitions) and Judith Richards (iCI’s Director) some questions about the exhibition. The result of our correspondence speaks for itself and is a great introduction to four months of laughter at the MacKenzie.

Q. What is the number one thing you want people to know when they walk into this exhibition?

A. Dominic Molon: Where their kids are and whether they turned off the coffee machine before they left the house. Kids are SO out of control these days and burnt coffee can really screw up the coffee pot. That, and the dialogue in every Monty Python and Mel Brooks film ever made.

Q. In simple terms, what is the connection between art and comedy?

A. DM: Artists and curators are often really funny. And more often very funny looking.

Q. In the foreword and acknowledgements of the catalogue it says that one of the goals of Situation Comedy is “to encourage laughter in the museum environment, a place it is not often heard.” How would you characterize the traditional museum environment and why do you think that laughter is often not heard there?

A. DM: Museums don’t have comfy chairs and you can’t touch anything. Plus, they were really created as something to give teachers and schoolkids something educational to do when they got bored with the classroom. Then other people discovered they were great places
to go with their significant others to ignore the existential crises tearing apart their relationships (which probably started at the same museum). Not very conducive to laughter, don’t you agree?

Q. The artists represented in this exhibition have practiced all over the world. How were they selected for Situation Comedy?

A. DM: We asked our parents what kind of art they disliked the most and we chose accordingly.

Q. If iCI was an ice cream flavour, what flavour would it be and why?

A. Susan Hapgood: Chocolate. Because it is delicious and it helps the brain make neurotransmitters.

Q. According to the iCI press kit, Situation Comedy has already toured to Hawaii, Illinois, Manitoba and Florida. Please share an interesting road story about the travels of this exhibition.

A. SH: The exhibition traveled to and from Hawaii by sea! We had to do a fair amount of research to figure out what the safest way to do this was, and I remember a few key special stipulations were that the art was sent in temperature-controlled containers, and could not travel on the top deck.

Q. There is an excerpt from a David Sedaris book included in the catalogue. Other than Sedaris being a funny writer, what is the connection between him, this exhibition and iCI?

A. SH: It is a wickedly funny skewering of artists and especially art schools; in this context, one might see it as the art establishment not taking itself too seriously.

Q. The design of the catalogue incorporates the speech bubble throughout, mainly to attribute artwork. What is the significance of this design element and its relationship to the theme of comedy?

A. SH: The designers, mgmt. design, were eager to carry through the exhibition theme in the design. The bubbles stretch the sense of the comic to the graphic design itself, with images identifying themselves with words, the design speaking to the reader.

Q. Is there anything else you would like people to know about this exhibition or iCI?

A. Judith Richards: iCI has created and toured over 100 exhibitions of contemporary art since it was founded in 1975, and iCI exhibitions have been presented by over 40 different Canadian museums in 8 provinces.

Image Credit:

Luis Gispert, Block Watching, 2002-03
single channel video with sound
Collection of the artist, courtesy Zach Feuer Gallery, NY

Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art

Twitter Updates