Humour and critique (1)

In October 2006 I had the following exhibition review published in Art and Christianity:

“Humour et Critique dans l’art d’aujourd’hui at the Palais de Congres et Expositions, Saint Jean de Monts boasted 130 works, mainly composed of the satirical (photomontages) and the surreal (cartoon/pop art based paintings), 30 of which were giant digital images displayed along the esplanade. Several pieces were openly critical of organised religion: Yves Hayat superimposed bombers over a Velasquez portrait of Pope Innocent X, his eyes closed to the destruction in front of him (Sans titre No.10); Ben Boutin juxtaposed, between George W. Bush and Tony Blair, a man wearing a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Jesus is coming – look busy’ (War); while Chamizo equated the three Religions of the Book in a triangle of terror surrounded by representations of African tribal religions, Buddhism and Hinduism (Dieu est amour).

Much of the work in Humour et Critique worked like these three pieces; as visual punch lines. Once you got the joke, the works had little more to reveal. These three were all based on the well rehearsed argument that religions condone conflict but seemed to do little more than repeat a standard critique in a visual form at the same time as screening out from their frames and arguments all that is positive about religion. To me they operated as didactic cartoons closing down rather than opening up a depth of debate.

Fortunately, this exhibition also contained more nuanced uses of the same mediums. Chamizo’s Help Me depicted a weeping Muslim woman as the Statue of Liberty. Was the Statue of Liberty weeping at US aggression in Muslim lands or were her tears for a perceived oppression of women in Muslim cultures? As the hijab has recently been banned in the schools of the land of ‘libertie, equalitie and fraternitie’ this image seemed a significant opening up of reflection on the relative understandings of freedom in Western and Muslim cultures. Similarly, Nus by Rémy Le Guillerm was a witty photomontage that opened up reflection on consumerism by setting, against a traditional image of the Fall, a contemporary Adam and Eve with a shopping trolley piled high of apples. Consumerism seen as the logical outworking of original sin seemed a particularly apposite use of the scriptural story.

Surprisingly, at the end of an exhibition which highlighted human divisions, came a painting that unironically depicted harmony across divides. In Déjeuner À Kumasi, the artist Hervé Di Rosa depicted a meal at the Almighty God Art Works during his stay to collaborate with the artists based at this Ghanian workshop. Art, faith and food came together to create a harmony symbolised by different hands reaching into the same bowl to share the main course of the meal.”

This review initiated correspondence with the exhibition organiser, Rémy Le Guillerm, who was himself an artist with work represented in the exhibition I reviewed. In the course of this correspondence we exchanged thoughts on the place of religion in contemporary art and images and writings of our artwork. This series of posts documents our correspondence.

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Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me.