Double Act: Art and Comedy

The joke has a healthy disrespect for structures and categories. When allied with art, it can become a very unruly and volatile impulse. Humour is a way of binding people together: providing consolation, a sense of shared experience and a powerful weapon of resistance. But, what we find funny can also be cruel, hateful, establishing symbolic boundaries that divide people into distinct groups, setting those with power against those without.Double Act draws together artists from diverse cultural and political contexts, each sharing an interest in humour as a resource to animate their art practice and to connect with an audience. This well-illustrated book provides a lively, original and humorous discussion of comic artworks by both established and emerging artists, including Paul McCarthy, Pilvi Takala, Keith Coventry, Jonathan Monk, Sarah Lucas, Richard Wentworth, Erwin Wurm, Richard Prince, Bruce Nauman, Alex Bag, and Cory Arcangel.Exhibition: Bluecoat, Liverpool, United Kingdom (09/04 - 19/06/2016) / MAC, Belfast, United Kingdom (06/05 - 31/07/2016)