What’s So Funny? – Why haven’t jokes, humour, wordplay and satire in the art of the last century been taken seriously?

Jennifer Higgie

VCA Alumna, now co-editor and staff writer of frieze magazine living in London

Still from Nat Mellors' film 'Ourhouse - The Nest' (2011) - HD video still. Courtesy of the artist; Matt's Gallery, London; Monitor, Rome; Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam.
Still from Nat Mellors' film 'Ourhouse - The Nest' (2011) - HD video still. Courtesy of the artist; Matt's Gallery, London; Monitor, Rome; Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam
It’s as impossible (or unbearable) to imagine a life – and by association, art – without laughter as it is to imagine a life without air. Yet, despite some important exceptions, there has been a surprising lack of discussion around the role of jokes, humour, wordplay and satire in the art of the last century. This is a small attempt to redress that lack.

Date: Thursday 8th December 2011

Time: 6.00pm – 7.00pm

Venue: Federation Hall, Grant St, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank

Free admission, no registrations

Jennifer Higgie’s biography 
A graduate from VCA in 1991, Jennifer Higgie is co-editor and staff writer of frieze magazine and lives in London. She has written over 140 features and reviews for frieze and is the author of the novel Bedlam, the editor of the anthology The Artist’s Joke and the screenwriter of the feature film I Really Hate my Job. In recent years she has written numerous catalogues for artists including Mary Heilmann, Gary Hume, Maria Lassnig, David Noonan, Ricky Swallow. She was a Turner Prize judge in 2008 and is on the Art Council of Great Britain Acquisitions Committee for 2011–12.