In the first major UK gallery survey of its kind, Laughing in a Foreign Language explores the role of laughter and humour in contemporary art through the work of 30 international artists.
Artists include Jake and Dinos Chapman (UK); Ugo Rondinone (Switzerland); Makoto Aida (Japan); Doug Fishbone (US); John Bock (Germany); David Shrigley (UK); Jun Yang (China); Julian Rosefeldt (Germany); Olaf Breuning (Switzerland); Candice Breitz (South Africa), Matthew Griffin (Australia) and Marcus Coates (UK).
Laughing in a Foreign Language, from 25 January – 13 April is the first exhibition curated by The Hayward's new International Curator, Mami Kataoka.
In a time of increasing globalisation, the exhibition questions if humour can only be appreciated by people with similar cultural, political or historical backgrounds and memories, or whether it can act as a catalyst for understanding the unfamiliar. Bringing together 80 works including videos, photographs and interactive installation, many of which have not been shown in the UK before, the show investigates the whole spectrum of humour, from jokes, gags and slapstick to irony, wit and satire, as well as questioning what it means to share a sense of humour and what it is that makes an individual laugh.
Ralph Rugoff, Director of The Hayward, said; "Laughter is universal; it is something that people in every culture can relate to. Humour however, is socially specific. This exhibition offers an alternative and fresh perspective on different cultures by bringing together artists from 22 nations around the world, including Japan, Mexico, Iran, Germany and Cameroon, and exhibiting work that asks us to explore not only the differences in culture and humour but also what unites us."
Historically, artists and academics have been occupied with humour for hundreds of years. The Earl of Shaftesbury, the first humour theorist, described humour as 'the expression of 'sensus communis'', a shared public sensibility. The artists in Laughing in a Foreign Language explore the contemporary 'public sensibility', exposing and often ridiculing the humour of their own nation or exploiting the humour that arises out of everyday gaps in translation with other cultures, or even to use humour to fill those spaces.
The exhibition brings together very different subject matters to explore the role of humour. Makoto Aida (Japan), Gimhongsok (Korea), Canidce Breitz (South Africa) and Kutlug Ataman (Turkey) all use humour in their work to address social and political issues within particular cultures and societies, using everything from mock Osama Bin Laden interviews, modern-day fairy tales, nonsensical conversations and belly dancing.
Other artists embrace the absurd and satirical. Julien Rosefeldt's (Germany) Clown is a literal interpretation of the exhibition title as his circus clown clambers through the Brazilian rainforest, while Marcus Coates (UK), bedecked in a full stag skin tries to contact the spiritual world of Liverpool in Journey to the Lower World. Through these and other works, artists explore and animate the ambiguous area around humour, sadness and seriousness. -- www.southbankcentre.co.uk
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