Sprung Spring

About

Sometimes laughter is our only possible escape from tensions that have become unbearable. Laughing works as a way to spin the uncomfortable into the enjoyable; or to enjoy the discomfort in a perverse way. Humour emerges from moments of awkward tension, awkward tension that can become unbearable before it becomes funny.

Then there are moments when a crucial part of a plan is missing, when we see someone falter in their ambition, or when an ugly part of a structure exposes itself. It can feel as if a whole world collapses in a mess. In that moment, after some clumsy goof, as the veil of composure is pulled away and we see a person hurriedly try to gather themselves together, we see human vulnerability. Awkward and beautiful, and at the same time funny. The structure of humour, the structure of a joke, is often based on a failure, a misunderstanding, or something unexpected, ugly or taboo.

SPRUNG SPRING embraces these processes of failure, exposure, and humour, embracing the crude, and perversely enjoying its own awkwardness. It slips between the beautiful, the tragic, and the humorous. This is an exhibition that wants us to think about those moments in the push and pull of humour, the rich fertile ground of failure, and the stage-craft of artworks and jokes.