HA HA ROAD

Exploring the use of humour in contemporary art, Ha Ha Road presents the work of artists who play with the ‘rupture of sense’.

Artists presented in the exhibition:

Boris Achour, Chantal Akerman, Bobby Baker, Dave Ball, Anna + Bernhard Blume, Stella Capes, Yara El Sherbini, Fischli + Weiss, Ceal Floyer, Rodney Graham, Ellie Harrison, Debbie Lawson, Mike Marshall, Kirsten Pieroth, Pipilotti Rist, Mathew Sawyer, Ariel Schlesinger, Hank Schmidt in der Beek, Michael Shaw, Roman Signer, Charles Stankievech, Annika Ström, Bedwyr Williams, Dan Witz, Erwin Wurm

Taking its title from the name of a street, the exhibition plays on its double meaning. Apart from its connection with laughter, a “ha-ha” also refers to a type of sunken boundary: a wall or fence set into a trench, forming a hidden division in a landscape whilst preserving the scenic view. This invisible frontier serves as a neat metaphor for our relationship to the world of laughter.
Strangely indistinguishable from the familiar terrain of normality, a joke transports us to a place where sense breaks down, where the familiar is turned on its head, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and where the world means differently. Nothing has changed and yet everything has changed. This is the paradoxical condition of humour, and the source of its disruptive power.
The show explores what it means to step over this barrier and to set foot into the inexplicable and illogical world of humour. The selected artworks demonstrate how acts of absurdity, irrationality or playfulness can interrupt reality and momentarily destabilise common assumptions.
The strategies used by the artists in Ha Ha Road, serve to illustrate the liberating freedom of thought at work in humour. They invite us to look at the world from the other side of the fence.

Ha Ha Road is curated by Dave Ball and Sophie Springer.

The exhibition was produced as a touring group show by QUAD, Derby, in collaboration with Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno.

Image: Dan Witz, Prank, 2005

Associated Events / Workshops

BEDWYR WILLIAMS - TALK AND PERFORMANCE

02 Mar

2 March 2012 7pm

£5 / £3 students.
Booking is essential as places are limited. To book call Mostyn Shop (debit/credit card) 01492 868191 or call by in person.

To coincide with his inclusion in the Ha Ha Road exhibition currently at Mostyn Bedwyr Williams will present an illustrated talk and performance at Mostyn. Originally from Colwyn Bay, Williams has gained international acclaim for his highly original and witty work as well recognition closer home when he won the clean sweep – the FIne Art Gold Medal, the Ifor Daves Award and the People’s Choice Award – at the National EIsteddfod In Wrexham in 2011.

Performance:
Master of Roles 2011
Bedwyr Williams takes you to meet an old Judge with metallic bad breath and a bumpy lawn.