Bluecoat's Chief Executive Mary Cloake introduces our autumn-winter programme
posted 23 Oct 2019
Exhibitions
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Double Act: Art and Comedy
- Sat, 09 Apr 2016 - Sun, 19 Jun 2016
- 10.00 AM - 6.00 PM
- Tickets: Free entry
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Artists:
Bill Woodrow // Mel Brimfield // Peter Land // Common Culture // Bank // Gemma Marmalade // Jo Spence and Terry Dennett // Sarah Lucas // Maurice Doherty // Alex Bag // Thomas Geiger // David Sherry // Erica Eyres // Peter Finnemore // Kara Hearn // Pilvi Takala
Double Act: Art and Comedy explores how comedy helps us to shape meaning and negotiate the complexities of everyday life.
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.
The show 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.
The exhibition curators, David Campbell and Mark Durden, are founding members of the artists’ group Common Culture and are currently studio holders at Bluecoat. This project stems from explorations in their own work of the comedic impulse within contemporary British culture. As the title suggests, the exhibition itself is a ‘double act’ and will be held at two venues, Bluecoat and MAC, Belfast (6 May - 31 Jul 2016), each featuring different works.
Programmed in association with The MAC, Belfast.
See our Double Act: Art and Comedy image gallery.
Related Events
Fri 8 Apr Exhibition Launch
Join us for the launch of Double Act. Mingle with the artists, have a drink at the bar, and take in the atmosphere.
Sat 9 Apr Exhibition Tour: David Campbell and Mark Durden
Exhibtion curators, David Campbell and Mark Durden lead a tour of the exhibition.
Sat 9 Apr Crit-a-Oke
10 artists set academic texts to pop music -- its critical writing karaoke.
Thu 21 Apr How Not (!) To Write
Laura Robertson discusses art jargon and why we should avoid it.
Fri 22 Apr Arabs Are Not Funny
An evening of Arabic comedy from a new wave of stand-up comedians representing the Arab World.
Wed 27 Apr LJMU Writer's Wrokshop Present: The Comedy of Error
An evening of readings in which error, misfortune and misadventure all feature -- dark comedy from Steve Ely and Samuel Hasler.
Wed 25 May What's There to Laugh About?
A lively, day-long symposium questioning how humour is currently used in performance making, presenting and programming.
Sat 28 May Exhibition Tour: Cathy Butterworth
Performer, curator and researcher in Live Art practices, Cathy Butterworth leads a tour of Double Act.
Wed 1 Jun Artists Talk: Harry Meadley
Artists Talk, devised by Harry Meadley, sits somewhere between an artist talk and a stand-up routine.
Sat 4 Jun Exhibition Tour: Frances Greenfield
Creator of THAT Comedy Blog Frances Greenfield leads a tour of the exhibition.
Wed 8 Jun Double Act Book Launch & Panel Discussion
Artists Gemma Marmalade and Mel Brimfield join exhibition curators Mark Durden and David Campbell to celebrate the launch of the Double Act: Art in Comedy limited edition publication and discuss comedy as an artistic strategy within their own practice. With performances throughout the evening by David Sherry.
Thu 9 Jun A Philosophy of Comedy
Drawing on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, the films of Charlie Chaplin, the TV show Family Guy and Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Shaun May addresses a distinctive characteristic of human beings: our ability to make and comprehend jokes.
Image credit: David Sherry, 'Red Sauce/Brown Sauce Mania' (2013) Courtesy of the Artist.