Editors’ Introduction
reproduction with pencil and white gouache, 11 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.
Welcome to “LOL,” SEQUITUR’s current issue, which takes as its theme humor, play, and amusement of all kinds. In many ways creativity lies at the core of laughter and fun, and the scholarship presented here highlights how art and visual culture reflect and engage with humor, absurdity, and parody. Our contributors examine a range of material and approach the theme from various angles: they consider funny and amusing internet content both as source material for their own work and in relation to art history and online culture; they explore the ways in which artists deploy notions of play and humor in order to mount social critiques; and they meditate on the place of humor in the content and conception of current exhibitions. Ultimately, the scholarship and art assembled here highlight the close relationship between the realms of the creative and the comedic.
The featured essays in this issue of SEQUITUR explore the role of humor in two distinct ways. In her essay, “Grotesque Irreverence: The Transformation of Ecce Homo,” Sophie Handler reflects on the phenomenon of Cecilia Giménez’s hilariously unfortunate restoration of a Spanish fresco depicting Christ in 2012. Handler follows the instant internet sensation ignited by this accidental disfigurement and the manifold Ecce Homo memes that pay tribute to it. Ultimately the simultaneous surprise, humor, and horror that Giménez’s intervention has elicited place the work within the paradigm of the grotesque, and the new appreciation it has gained as an expressive evocation of personal devotion brings new meaning to the idea of laughing at God. An artist’s intentional use of humor is examined in Janna Schoenberger’s essay “Jean Tinguely’s Cyclograveur: The Ludic Anti-Machine of Bewogen Beweging.” Shifting gears to postwar Europe, Schoenberger explores the context of a 1961 kinetic art exhibition held in Amsterdam. One of Tinguely’s pieces featured in the show was a bicycle-inspired sculpture that could be activated when a viewer sat in its “saddle” and began pedaling. Through a careful consideration of Tingueley’s Cyclograveur and a close look at the modern transformations of postwar Europe, Schoenberger argues that the artist marshaled humor and absurdity to mount a critique of the increased mechanization of Dutch society.
The four exhibition reviews within this issue examine, respectively, an ongoing installation in Washington, D.C., a recently closed show in Los Angeles, and two current exhibitions in London and Cambridge, MA. Hyunjin Cho reviews the Peacock Room REMIX at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. This exhibition revolves around Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre installation which is inspired by James McNeil Whistler’s famous Peacock Room interior. Cho elaborates on the ways in which Waterston’s piece may be considered a parody of the original and gives readers a close account of the multifaceted concerns and subjects explored by the show. Shannon M. Lieberman’s review of The Younger Generation: Contemporary Japanese Photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles keenly highlights elements of play and humor embedded in the works featured in this show. At the same time, Lieberman considers the exhibition’s aim to challenge the label “girl photography”—applied to young female Japanese photographers—and gives readers a thoughtful account of how this dated and sexist term could be further invalidated. The motif of play is explored further by SEQUITUR Junior Editor Erin McKellar in her review of Alice in Wonderland, an exhibition at the British Library in London, held in honor of the sesquicentennial of the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As McKellar illustrates, the show, which features seminal manuscripts and memorabilia related to Alice, effectively evokes the childlike playfulness of the original text in its interactive design and unexpected arrangement. At the Harvard Art Museums, Joseph Saravo explores the wonder-filled world of Hieronymus Bosch in Beyond Bosch: The Afterlife of a Renaissance Master in Print. This intimate exhibition focuses on the entrepreneurial artists and printers who capitalized on the supernatural style of the master following his death, and Saravo reveals how this grouping of grotesquely humorous images, mostly from a private collection, tells an important story of the Bosch brand.
Catherine O’Reilly, coordinator of the 2016 Boston University Graduate Student Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture, reflects on this year’s conference, which took place on February 26th and 27th at the Boston University Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Entitled “Serious Fun: Expressions of Play in the History of Art and Architecture,” the symposium corresponds to the theme of this issue, and O’Reilly provides insights into the serious relationship of power, play, and propaganda as well as the light-hearted role of play and fun in identity construction and communal involvement. She also summarizes the keynote lecture given by Dr. Paul Barolsky, who challenged art historians to reject somber evaluations of artworks that epitomize joy, jest, and jocularity.
Finally, this issue of SEQUITUR features two visual essays by MFA students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Nicole Brunel’s visual essay, “badthingshappen…” documents her web project which appropriates videos and photos found on slapstick Instagram accounts. As Brunel edits, she removes the humorous contexts and fuses this material into a single narrative. What remains are only fragments of the tragic failures that so often define viral internet humor. Emily Quinn’s visual essay features four paintings in which she uses unsettlingly funny and absurd imagery to examine stereotypical masculinity. The artist draws on her experiences and family history to construct narratives that combine comedy, fantasy and a critical look at various clichéd activities and preoccupations.
Our authors approach the theme of “LOL” from diverse vantage points, and we are delighted that they engage various manifestations of humor in art with such innovative scholarship. As we finish our second and final year on the SEQUITUR editorial board, we would like to extend our warmest thanks to our readers, contributors, supporters, and collaborators. Without all of you this journal would not have grown so quickly and expanded so fruitfully. Working on the SEQUITUR team—first with Beth, Martina, and Naomi, and now with Erin, Jordan, and Sasha—has been a great pleasure. We are grateful for the experience and look forward to watching the exciting work ahead as SEQUITUR enters its third year. For now, we hope that you can find something that makes you laugh out loud within this issue, whether you LOYO or ROFL with friends.