CIRCUIT is delighted to announce Comic Release, a three-part series for CIRCUIT Cast of conversations with artists who work with humour in moving image, hosted by artist Joe Jowitt.

Comic Release takes as its starting point Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek's suggestion that "laughter is one way of coping with the incomprehensible." In conversation with moving image practitioners Jowitt asks, how do artists employ humour to engage with Aotearoa's socio-political landscape? How does their work address contemporary challenges?

If figures like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin used slapstick and physical comedy to comment on modernity, how do today's artists employ humour to critique our fragmenting postmodern society? Can humour in art serve as a tool of liberation?

Joe Jowitt is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist and video director/producer working in documentary. His practice is concerned with the politics of failure and the nature of the comedic and the absurd. He is currently a MPhil candidate in the Visual Arts faculty at AUT, researching the deployment of humour within contemporary art practice in Aotearoa.

Listen to the first episode with artist Sean Grattan here.

Talk details

    CIRCUIT is the
    leading voice
    for artist moving image
    practice
    in Aotearoa New Zealand,
    distributing works,
    critical review and
    dialogues
    which reflect our unique, contemporary
    South Pacific context.