This is fairly light humour considering the pair’s compendium of subversities. Makoto Aida, Japan’s ‘most controversial’ artist is slightly underwhelming - although his Video of a Man Calling Himself Bin Laden Staying in Japan is brilliant. In it we see the artists dressed as Bin Laden giving a sort of press conference, showing absurd drawings and making strange suggestions on who he’s hiding from and how he came to be in Japan.
While avoiding anything offensive the exhibition does provide a good overview of genres of funniness. Humour with a satirical edge is at large, initiated by Korean artist Gimhonsok’s show-opening piece The Bremen Town Musicians. Here a story of illegal immigrants, via a Brother’s Grimm tale, told through a heap of lustrous animal costumes. This continues with some digital prints by Ghazel, whose work methodically examines her identity as an Iranian woman, whilst making witty quips on any stereotypes or assumptions. In each case, humour is a symptom of a more carefully constructed message.
Some artists shown revel in the specifics of comedy practice, top of the bill is performing ludicrous tasks very earnestly. The wonderful Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates is welcomingly screened. A 2004 project saw the artist dress in traditional stag skins and gravely performed a Siberian Yakut ritual on residents of a condemned tower block in Liverpool.
His genuine loving expression amongst the aghast/giggling faces of his ‘blessed’ is undeniably hilarious. Similarly the belly dancing antics of Kutlug Ataman in Turkish Delight proves that ridiculing yourself is the most raw and commendable form of humour. In this same vein Martin Walde presents us with the hilarity of an incongruous task. The Key Spirit features a door, and coming from behind the door is the howling of a rather desperate sounding cat. At the foot of a door lies a large pile of keys. Someone (probably not Walde) laboriously sifts through the keys, trying each one in the said door.