Michael Workman

It's something we need a whoooole lot more of in the art world these days: a sense of humor. Something's gone wrong. Given all the whining wastrels, demagogues, nabobs and the typical assholery of the Chicago art world, you'd think cracking a joke could shatter brass. It's hard to imagine through the dimness of faded memory how it was in the mid-nineties, when you couldn't throw a rock without knocking an art hoaxer in the head and spoofs of everything from gallery pretensions to museum sternness were common enough to double as wallpaper. Remember all those spontaneous laugh parties on the el train artist Meg Duguid used to throw? Fifty people laughing at once, for no reason. Passengers thought they'd fallen into the Wonka LSD tunnel.

Maybe we're just stuck on critical assessments of global power, still confronting our fears of attack by terrorist-driven UFO death squads and/or wondering what mouth of hell will rise up to swallow Iraq whole. And these are all important focus issues to be sure, but it's wise to laugh a little in the face of our troubles. It shows we know how to rise above them.

Enter "Situation Comedy: Humor In Recent Art," a whimsical, hip, fun show open now at the Chicago Cultural Center, curated by Dominic Molon and Michael Rooks, the former a curator in good standing at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the latter formerly of the MCA, now stationed at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. "Organized and circulated" by the Independent Curators International, the show premiered in Hawaii and leaves from Chicago for stops in Winnipeg and Fort Lauderdale. In the art world, both Molon and Brooks, we should note, are considered stars in their trade. And they deserve it, mostly. Each has done much excellent work. And there are mostly great, hilarious and thoughtful pieces in this show. But. Cmon. Where's the sex? Is it because it's the Cultural Center? There just isn't enough sex, and any good show about humor needs lots of sex.

About the closest this show gets to sex are the heaving boobies of Susan Smith Pinelo's 2001 single-channel video with sound, "Sometimes." It's basically a close-up shot of the artist's sumptuous cleavage beneath a gold necklace that spells "ghetto," slowly bouncing in time to the Michael Jackson tune "Working Day and Night." Yes, it's meant to poke fun at the way women are objectified in music videos and all the jiggling, narrow-focus provides a romp. But it's a short ride. Beyond that we have Luis Gispert's single-channel video, also with sound, "Block Watching." In it, a cheerleader completely decked out in necklaces, rings and bracelets gyrates, bumps and grinds while singing along to the sound of a car alarm. The mocking attitude and all the jewelry, as the catalog properly notes, evokes the "bling" of hip-hop, but here again it's mostly about the hot chick. And maybe only a wanking hottie of this caliber can challenge the stern propriety of a nation obsessed with its own security. She's dangerous and she makes us want to get in on the act. Fuck yeah.

Aside from these two, the humor comes out of a somewhat stiffer shirt. Laura Nova's 2001 installation "On the Spot" comes with its own stage set, an empty stand-up comedian setup complete with mic and empty audience seats. Every few seconds you hear what's known as a "rim shot," the familiar drum and cymbal crash that accompanies a comic's punchline. It's interesting because you hear this throughout your entire time browsing the show and when you finally discover the curtained stage, you suddenly realize that, this whole time, the sound had been calling for you to climb aboard. There's a teleprompter at the foot of the stage with jokes programmed in to read. Participants can climb up, read the jokes aloud and even get band accompaniment. It's a cool piece, as is Peter Land's drunken comic video "Pink Space" and Kelly Mark's video "Rueben" of a young man carrying on an earnest conversation with a statue.

They've revived Chicago artist Tony Tasset's "I Peed My Pants" from 1994 and a whole slew of works, from Christian Jankowski's 1992 video "The Hunt," Felix Gmelin's 1994 oil "I Love You Tushee Love Buns," etc., all of which inspires wonder at how the curators are defining the word "recent." Anything, really, before 1998 strikes me as suspect in a survey like this, though I'm willing to give a pass, because it's so funny, from Friedman's '96 cibachome "Untitled," depicting a giant's body-shaped cartoon crater where he fell to earth, all the William PopeL. stuff since he's just so fucking awesome and even Rodney Graham's "Vexation Island" from 1997, a nine-minute looped video of a pirate stranded on a desert island who gets conked in the head with a coconut. But, still. Curators of Molon and Rooks' stature should get off their duffs and away from their rolodexes a little--there's real laziness in evidence here. Maybe the mid-nineties were just a whole lot funnier of a time to be alive. And I'm not just saying that because there's not enough sex. Because there isn't.

"Situation Comedy: Humor In Recent Art" shows at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington, (312)744-6630, through April 9.

(2006-02-07)

Also by Michael Workman

Eye Exam
It's amusing that, on a weekend with so little of the white stuff actually around, there's a preponderance of art about snow
(2006-01-31)

The Real Thing
If art is a word owned by the visual arts more than music, cinema and other media, then few institutions have a stronger hold on Chicago's version of it than the Hyde Park Art Center
(2006-01-31)

Tip of the Week
Mark Booth, best known for his biomorphic text paintings, has organized an interdisciplinary festival that connects sound, performance and the language arts playing at Links Hall every weekend night through the month of February
(2006-01-31)

Eye Exam
Fans of small art spaces will want to check out the current show at Lobby Gallery, its penultimate exhibition before director Matthew Robinson closes the doors for good
(2006-01-24)

Kimmel Bits
(2006-01-24)

Eye Exam
(2006-01-17)

Eye Exam
(2006-01-10)

Eye Exam
(2006-01-03)

Eye Exam
(2005-12-20)

Eye Exam
(2005-12-13)

Eye Exam
(2005-12-06)

Eye Exam
(2005-11-15)

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