‘Laugh Back’ ~ a Group Exhibition at Smack Mellon

Art Exhibit, DUMBO

 

 

Laugh Back from L-R: Natalie Baxter, Severed and Growing, 2017; Andrea Stanislav, L.O.T.R.F.M. (Last of the Real Fucking Men), 2016; Dynasty Handbag, FASCIST DICTATORSHIP MAKEUP TUTORIAL, 2016; Rachel Mason, FutureClown’s Inaugural Address, 2016. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo credit: Etienne Frossard

How ’bout a little laughter to threaten authority. Smack Mellon probes the transgressive potential this might have in our increasingly tense political landscape in the group exhibition, Laugh Back.

Laugh Back ~ Jen Liu, Pink Slime Caesar Shift, 2018. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo credit: Etienne Frossard

“Focusing specifically on the practices of self-identifying women, Laugh Back reframes the trope of humorless feminist resistance by emphasizing deployments of the absurd that disrupt presumed stable discourses. Speaking directly to the contemporary sociopolitical climate, the works in Laugh Back examine gender, race, politics, and labor from multicultural perspectives to uncover a current, uniquely feminist brand of humor that is an increasingly threatened and threatening vehicle to speak truth to power.”

Laugh Back from L-R: Kameelah Janan Rasheed, An Alphabetic Accumulation of Approximate Observations, 2018; Natalie Baxter, Severed and Growing,, 2017; Andrea Stanislav, L.O.T.R.F.M. (Last of the Real Fucking Men), 2016; Dynasty Handbag, FASCIST DICTATORSHIP MAKEUP TUTORIAL, 2016; Rachel Mason, FutureClown’s Inaugural Address, 2016; Jan Run, Comic Relief, 2018. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo credit: Etienne Frossard.

Participating artists are Farah Al Qasimi, Natalie Baxter, Deborah Castillo, Kristina Davis, Dynasty Handbag, Jesse Harrod, INNER COURSE (Rya Kleinpeter and Tora Lopez), Lady Parts Justice League’s Vagical Mystery Tour, Jen Liu, Rachel Mason, Jan Man, Luis Mejico, Madhini Normal, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Katherine Simone Reynolds, Andrea Stanislav.

Laugh Back ~ From L-R: Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Structural Humor: Vaughn on the Basketball Court, 2016 Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Structural Humor: Todd Outside the Gate, 2016 Kameelah Janan Rasheed, An Alphabetic Accumulation of Approximate Observations, 2018 INNER COURSE,The Agony Of It All, 2018. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo credit: Etienne Frossard

“Laugh Back focuses on the diverse cultural production of artists who engage the defiant possibilities of humor, satire, and the absurd as subversive tools for cultural change.”

Laugh Back, curated by Lindsey O’Connor, will be on view to August 19, 2018 at Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth Street at Washington Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Check the Smack Mellon website for numerous related events.