Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art
9 September - 31 December 2005
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu
2411 Makiki Heights Drive
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
T: (808) 526-1322
Alexej Koschkarow, Tortenschlact (Pie Fight), 2003, Video still. Collection of the artist; courtesy Jablonka Lühn, Cologne.
The human condition has been the subject of comedy for eons, from ancient Greek theater to the daily comic strip. During the past five to ten years, however, humor has turned up with increasing frequency in contemporary art, perhaps satisfying an urgent need among artists and audiences alike to reflect upon the absurdity of daily existence. The traveling exhibition Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art presents more than fifty worksvideo and sound installations, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographsby younger as well as more established contemporary artists working primarily in North America and Europe.
Curated by Michael Rooks, curator at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu and Dominic Molon, Pamela Alper associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Situation Comedy is the first large-scale exhibition in the United States devoted to this subject. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue written by the curators and includes a story excerpted from David Sedaris’ acclaimed book Me Talk Pretty One Day. Situation Comedy premieres on September 9th at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. After its Hawaii premiere, the exhibition will travel to the Chicago Cultural Center, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale.
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.
The presentation of Situation Comedy in Honolulu is made possible through support from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. In-kind support has been provided by Sony Hawaii, ResortQuest Hawaii, and CineSystems, Honolulu. Sound for Rodney Grahams Vexation Island provided by BOSE® at Victoria Ward.
About The Contemporary Museum
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, is the only museum in the state of Hawaii devoted exclusively to contemporary art. TCM provides an accessible forum for provocative, dynamic forms of visual art, offering interaction with art and artists in a unique Island environment. TCM presents its innovative exhibition and education programs at two venues: in residential Honolulu at the historic Spalding house, and downtown at First Hawaiian Center.
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