QUEERGURU FEATURE HOMO HUMOUR: COMEDY AND SUBVERSION

February 11, 2020

QUEERGURU FEATURE HOMO HUMOUR: COMEDY AND SUBVERSION

Great feature by Queerguru on HOMO HUMOUR: COMEDY AND SUBVERSION at Edge Zones 15/02/20
http://www.queerguru.com/homo-humour/

HOMO HUMOUR: COMEDY AND SUBVERSION as part of PerforMIA 2020

A selection of short films by queer male filmmakers from U.K, USA and Australia curated by Lee Campbell that explore how homosexual men have historically and to this day embraced and used camp, daftness and a range of comedy forms in subversive and often surprising ways to express as well as emotionally protect.

Lee Campbell
Ilker Cinarel
Joao Dall'Stella
 Jordan McKenzie
Sean Leviashvili & Stephen Riscica
Jake Shannon

As part of PerforMIA 2020
Edge Zones Presents an evening of Performance, noise, videos and experimental sound.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/performia-2020-tickets-93174215587

Sat, February 15, 2020
7:00 PM – 11:00 PM EST

Edge Zones
3317 NW 7th Ave. Cir.
Miami, FL 33127
United States

Lee Campbell
LET RIP: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF SEEING AND NOT SEEING (2019) 8 mins
Ilker Cinarel
Imagine the Future (2019) 5 mins 55
Jordan McKenzie
Monsieur Poo-Pourri Takes a Tour of his Estate Bethnal Green, London (2010)
9 mins 17
Joao Dall'Stella
Stalls (2019) 3 mins
Sean Leviashvili and Stephen Riscica
Limp (2019) 19 mins
Lee Campbell
Tackle (2020) 6 mins
Jake Shannon
Sammy The Salmon (2018)7 mins

As a means to express as well as emotionally protect, homosexual men have historically and to this day embraced and used camp, daftness and a range of comedy forms in subversive and often surprising ways. For example, the gay slang language of Polari hovers being blunt and not and allows users ‘to get away with’ being very rude. Historically so, when used in abundance on mainstream radio when the majority heteronormative listener would be oblivious to the innuendo they were listening to / they were laughing at. By combining fine art, performance and comedy aesthetics, Through a presentation showreel of short films, HOMO HUMOUR explores the application of humour and comedy tactics by contemporary queer male artists and invites visitors to reflect upon how queer male culture has employed artistic embraces of humour and comedy as strategies to challenge, transgress, subvert and rebel. By doing so, they not only counter art history’s rancor towards and is resistant to particular kinds of humour that are only now being embraced by the most recent methodologies, these artists offer compelling ways of using humour as an artistic, disruptive, cathartic and transgressive act that provokes awareness of key critical issues relating to queer male representation historically and today.

Jake Shannon: Still from Sammy the Salmon 2018

Ilker Cinarel: Still from Imagine the Future 2019

João Dall'Stella: Still from STALLS 2019

Sean Leviashvili and Stephen Riscica:

Stills from Limp 2019

About the Curator

Dr Lee Campbell (b.1978) is an artist based in London working in performance and moving image. His recent film Let Rip: A Personal History of Seeing and Not Seeing (2019) has been shortlisted for the Queerbee LGBT Film Festival 2020 and How can I get my partner to be my finger? was awarded Special Mention at London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival Autumn 2019. An example of one of his previous curatorial projects is All for Show, (2005-2007, 2017), an internationally touring exhibition of short films made by British artists including Harold Offeh, Doug Fishbone and Juneau Projects that tested the acceptable limits of humour in the white cube art gallery using humour. Jessica Lack’s review in ID magazine referred to ‘slapstick theatrics’ (Lack, 2005:55) and ‘an awkward and macabre sense of humour […] cringingly funny. These idiosyncratic films succeed in finding surreal quirks in the banalities of everyday life’ (ibid.). Campbell will curate Radical Ventriloquism, a group exhibition at KELDER projects, London opening in March 2020.

SHOW HISTORY

EDGEZONES, Miami, Florida, USA, May 2005
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, USA, May 2005
PHYSICS ROOM, Christchurch, New Zealand, June 2005
LUMP GALLERY, North Carolina, USA, July 2005
SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, USA, July 2005
FAHRENHEIT GALLERY, USA, July 2006
MIGHTY SCREENLAND THEATRE, Kansas City, USA July 2005
HET WILDE WETEN, Rotterdam, Netherlands January 2006
NEXUS, Philadelphia, USA, February 2006
KX, Hamburg, Germany, March 2006
GALERIE VERTICALE, Montreal, Canada, August 2006
STUDIO 1.1, LONDON, August 2006
CAFÉ GALLERY PROJECTS LONDON, August 2006