Turner Prize 2013

Continuing on from the work of Turner Prize nominee David Shrigley, I will also reference Laure Prouvost who uses humour within her video installations.

A French artist, Pouvost was nominated for her new work Wantee (2013) shown at the "Schwitters in Britain" exhibition, Tate Britain, where she communicated her thoughts of everyday problems with language and association.

One example of humour being used as strategy in her work is Wantee. This video installation depicts Prouvost carrying around the camera in a "lived in" house, talking us through what she is seeing and how she is perceiving it, as if she is directly talking to us. In one section of this video she points the camera towards a painted window on a wall, and then to a real window, talking us through what is real and what isn't. 

This  quirky and humorous 'stating the obvious' comparison, uses the personal directions of the camera to create light hearted humour in considering the comedic value of language barriers. The title of this video installation can also be considered to be humorous as it can easily be mis-interpretated through pronounciation;  "Wantee" can be interpretated as "Want Tea?", another example of Prouvost-ian strategies highlighting the barrier of language.

Screenshot from Wantee, Laure Prouvost (2013)

In Swallow (2013), the video installation depicts various scenes - including a close up of a woman's mouth inhaling and exhaling, the picking and eating of strawberries and raspberries, and various shots of naked women and men walking around a lush environment, and, for example, wading through a lake. In one section of this video the camera is focused on a fish which appears to swim out of the water to a stone, which has raspberries on top, and then supposedly steals a raspberry and swims back into the water. While we focus on this clip we hear a seductive, female voiceover say "the bird stealing the raspberry". 

As Laure Prouvost says: ‘I think misunderstanding makes you use your imagination more'.(Tate Shots)

Overall when considering Prouvost's video installations, it is arguably  humour that helps us to interpret Prouvost's understanding of the world, in a light hearted, playful and often surprising manner.  

   

Turner Prize 2013

In this years Turner Prize, which is being held in Northern Ireland at Ebrington in Derry-Londonderry, David Shrigley,one of the nominees for this years Turner Prize shows various examples of humour in his sculpture and illustrations.

The Turner Prize is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. The nominees for this years Turner Prize are David Shrigley, Laure Prouvost ,Tino Sehgal and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. 

I will be focusing on David Shrigley's work as it relates to the use of humour and the everyday.

David Shrigley is a British visual artist. He was nominated for his "Brain Activity" exhibition where he translated his thoughts of  everyday problems and solutions through the use of black humour.

One example of humour being used as a mechanism in his work is I'm Dead (2010). This depicts a stuffed Jack Russell standing on its hind legs holding a picket sign reading "I'm dead" in bold, black handwritten letters. This evokes bathos as it has blatantly stated the obvious of the dog's condition.

I'm Dead, David Shrigley (2010)

Bathos is created through the human stance of the dog which could also be considered in relation to Darwin's theory of evolution. 

Another example of humour being used as a mechanism in Shrigley's work is Life Model (2012). This was a room which had various easels set up in a circle around a sculpture of a naked man standing on a pedestal with over exaggerated features, e.g. elongated ears and nose, in front of a bucket which the "life model" pees into now and then as well as blinks.

Life Model, David Shrigley (2012)

When considering the pain of what a life model goes through, the depiction of the naked man (being able to blink and urinate into the bucket in front of him), it becomes comedic as well as crude. It also shows the comedic interpretation of sitting in a life drawing class as the over exaggerated features reflect how drawings in a life drawing class can be dis-proportioned when trying to draw from life. This allows us to see both perspectives of the life model and the life drawer. The viewers were asked to draw the sculpture and then display their drawing on a wall with various others, giving the illusion of a life drawing class. This can be associated with the everyday struggle of a artist or art enthusiast when considering the humour portrayed in a subject based way.

Overall, when considering Shrigley's "Brain Activity" exhibition, it is arguably humour that inspires the outlook that Shrigley promotes: we can find humour everywhere, even in the revered and "serious" atmosphere of the life drawing room.

After considering Roland Barthes' theory "The Death of the Author" regarding how we interpret art, I intend to apply the theory to various forms of art to see how we make meaning. In particular I will be looking at art which contains a certain kind of humour. 

An artist duo who focus on video that can be considered to derive humour from the everyday are John Wood and Paul Harrison. In their video installation 10x10 (2011), they focus on the routine of an everyday office job, and obscure the common perception of office work as bland. They experiment in the video with everyday office objects such as tables, chairs, paper shredders and various other equipment. They also physically experiment with the environment by interacting with the surroundings, e.g. in one moment of this video installation a man is standing in a room with a table and chair, where lighting is placed on the floor. The man then moves the table that knocks over the chair to smash one of the lights that is on the floor, thereby creating a comedic sequence out of the mundane.

              10x10, John Wood and Paul Harrison, 2011

By experimenting physically with the everyday environment, they bring forth various interpretations which may have not been associated with office work. By capturing the performance on video we can watch the action unfold rather than merely seeing a photograph of the end results. Perhaps the beauty of Harrison and Wood's work comes from the unexpected- finding humour in the unlikely sphere of the world of desk based work. Repetition is a key comedic device employed in their work and also arguably a factor of day to day work in an office environment.  

Another artist who focuses on sculpture that can be considered to derive humour from the everyday is Jeff Koons. His sculpture piece Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988) is inspired by the reproduction of banal objects. This particular sculpture is inspired by kitsch ornaments which are used to decorate domestic interiors and homes. On the left hand side of this sculpture we first focus on the gold leaf plated porcelain shoe, then along Michael Jackson's leg to his hip where we focus on the monkey Bubbles with gold leaf plated porcelain flowers scattered around them, and then our eyes are lead up to Michael Jackson's face.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Jeff Koons (1988)

By making the sculpture on a large scale this potentially banal object is exaggerated, making a humorous or ironic statement on the value we place on ornament.

“The type of adulation, the type of support that’s given to pop artists -- this was the contemporary type of support that I thought that Christ would have received in his time,” explains Koons, who says he executed the sculpture in a Renaissance style, its triangular shape reminiscent of Michelangelo’s “Pieta” (www.bloomberg.com).

Chapel of Pieta, Michelangelo (1475-1564)

When considering the intertextuality of this piece it raises the debate as to whether famous people such as celebrities are idolised like religious figures.This can be interpreted as distasteful - Koons has recycled what we know to be a holy, religious piece into something ironic and possibly blasphemous. However when comparing Koon's interpretation of a Pieta to David LaChapelle's Pieta with Courtney Love(below) it can be argued that Koon's interpretation is more humorous and light hearted when compared to LaChapelle's. 

Pieta with Courtney Love, David LaChapelle, (2006)

This piece can be considered inappropriate in its appropriation  of the "Pieta", as the original Chapel of Pieta (1475-1564) depicts St Mary cradling her dead son, Jesus.  

Looking at this image it is apparant that LaChapelle has referenced the death of Kurt Cobain in this piece which can be taken to be offensive in a religious context when considering idolism but mainly be offensive due to the fact that Kurt Cobain took his own life and by depicting him in this way in this image can be interpreted as an inappropiate way to respond to a issue such as suicide. For example at the bottom of this picture is a line of building blocks which spell out the sentence "Heaven to Hell", which can be interpreted to be religious connotation as suicide is believe to be one of the deadliest sins which condemns you to hell. However when considering this insight about the piece from LaChapelle it can be considered that this piece is about the ultimate loss. 

"DLC Pieta is the strongest image in art. It represents the ultimate loss. So for me Catholics don’t own that idea. A mother losing a child is the ultimate loss. When I did the book [Heaven to Hell] with Courtney [Love], it was about my friend Brett, who was a bike messenger. He was addicted to heroin and had overdosed. He became a really good friend I met when I worked at Interview. That picture was haunting. I wanted to commemorate that loss. We have not progressed. That’s why we still need gimmicks. We decided to worship the painter. I like the shepherd image of Jesus. Condemning the Church, it’s like condemning a country. I will not let fundamentalists destroy what I know to be be a beautiful guide. I believe in love and forgiveness" (www.bombsite.com).

Comparing this piece to Koon's interpretation makes this work become a darker piece and resembles no obvious humour.