Seriously Funny at CityLit

I've mentioned, positively on more than one occasion CityLit and have another reason to sing their praises.

At CityLit we looked at Humour (including the absurd)

On Saturday I joined a one-day course called Seriously Funny - a history of art and humour run by Ian Tucknott, Ian introduced himself as a cultural theorist and humorous artist (as well as a serious poet).  Examples of his work were shown line in/line out ( a work about communication using 'string' telephone' as a starting point)  and binoculars.


Ian revealed as the  day went on the debt and the influence he got from Marcel Duchamp.


There were only 6 of us on the course but this was not a bad thing as it enabled a high level of participation.

Part of Duchamp legacy

The exploration that the day provided covered topics around:

 being in on the joke and the superiority this gave the informed audience

-The idea that Galleries are serious places.

- we looked at the forms of humour in various art works  including incongruity,  Surrealism (and the Absurd) and Puns and the way that Satire was used (citing Hogarth as an early exponent).

Always nice to have the possibility of following up and Ian has promised to send us the presentation with links, which should include David Shrigley, Martin Creed, Erwin Wurm as well as Francis Alys (The Last Clown is an example of his work)  and Bruce Nauman (Double No was mentioned) also Banksy.

Hanna Hoch (1889 - 1978) and Yoko Ono were examples of female artists in a male dominated field.


Certainly much of what is covered in these works is 'serious' but humour is a great way of communicating some difficult topics.