A group show of international artists with KUNST the CLOWN Curated by PAUL SAKOILSKY & Martin J Tickner
DREAD AND CIRCUSES
Two cannibals are eating a clown – first one turns to the second and says, ‘Is it me or does this taste funny?’
Nowadays everything tastes ‘funny’ – maybe it’s the swabs and the masks that we wear? Or is it something that runs deeper than Covid, is some other malaise surfacing as the lights go down on this pandemic?
Certainly, something wicked this way comes…but what is that rough beast heaving into view? Is there a clown in charge? Come closer, look past the white hair and painted smile, the tinsel and prosecco: you must lean in a little further to clearly make ‘it’ out. Too late – now we’re caught up in it all, have walked out onto a tightrope hanging beyond right and wrong, while balancing the truth on our nose, too scared to look down, incapable of turning back. What must we do? There is no social safety-net below: so, on we must go. The show must always go on. So on with the show.
In the spotlight, beneath the Big-Top’s darkened cone, stands another joker, another trickster. The name of this clown is Kunst (which of course, is German for ‘art’) and as we know art is all about tricks; sleight-of-hand, subverting the established order of things in its attempts at getting under the skin of things, offering a trick-mirror to the ‘Dark Times’ we are in.
This Kunst the Clown – a grease-paint-tulpa, the reflection-in-a-tear of artist Paul Sakoilsky, first manifested at Liget Galéria, Budapest in 2007 and has since haunted the galleries of Europe (like the spectre of Marx once haunted Europe’s Stadia – though now we are in different times and far scarier ghosts haunt the terraces now). Knocking things over, pulling the rug and causing mayhem are of course what we expect from clowns and artists, and here offered up is a Wunderkammer, a veritable cornucopia of art, from an unimpeachable collection of internationally renowned artists. Drink deep of the truths they reveal, the mysteries dissected, and the beauty borne forth and remember, art’s job is not only clowning around: this is serious business we are dealing with today.
So roll up, roll up and ask yourself, who’s laughing now?
text Dave Dorrell
Featuring the artists: Vanya Balogh, Chris Bianchi, Giulia Biccario, Kate Bland, Orlando Campbell, Jake Chapman, Cedric Christie, Paul Davis, David Fryer, Bert Gilbert, Julie Goldsmith, Charlotte Hopkins-Hall, Joe Hesketh, Jim Hollingworth, Dick Jewell, Bex Massey, Seulgi Kang, Viktor Mattsson, NOKI, Phillip Wilson-Perkin, Paul Renner, Martin Richman, Pascal Rousson, Paul Sakoilsky, Joseph Sakoilsky, Geraldine Swayne, Gavin Turk
KUNST the CLOWN & FRIENDS 24th February – 6th March 2022 GALLERY46 London PRIVATE VIEW Thursday 24th February then onto
KUNST the CLOWN & FRIENDS Lebenson Gallery PARIS 1st April – 1st May 2022 PRIVATE VIEW Friday 1st April 6 – 10pm
Categories
Tags
- Bert Gilbert
- Bex Massey
- Cedric Christie
- Charlotte Hopkins Hall
- Chris Bianchi
- David Fryer
- DICK JEWELL
- gallery 46
- Gavin Turk
- Geraldine Swayne
- Giulia Biccario
- Jake Chapman
- Jim Hollingworth
- Joe Hesketh
- Joseph Sakoilsky
- Julie Goldsmith
- Kate Bland
- Martin J Tickner.
- Martin Richman
- NOKI
- Orlando Campbell
- Pascal Rousson
- Paul Davis
- Paul Renner
- Paul Sakoilsky
- Phillip Wilson-Perkin
- SEULGI KANG
- VANYA BALOGH
- Viktor Mattsson
