An Architect Makes a Joke
Certain jokes seem constructed according to an (il)logical system and the pleasure of a joke is often found in recognizing how it was made- you appreciate what’s under the hood. An architect making a joke simultaneously invokes the structural nature of comedy and the application of the formal logic of jokes to building and design. I try to play with expectations, loosening and expanding the horizons of experience. I make art like making a joke, creating concrete sites of rupture where the material world and its other can be found existing simultaneously.
Comedy is social. My actions and experiences involved in making art are just as much a part of the work as the viewer’s interpretation and experience. The two are inseparable parts of an artwork. There is social and political opportunity in comedy’s ability to build communities (while challenging social norms) challenge ideology (while undermining its own authority) and to solve seemingly intractable problems through the inclusion of the absurd. Comedy is an organizing system capable of expanding meaning and upending reality. Because of this, it is inherently political… but often steps off a soapbox onto a banana peel.
-ET
