Hello Darkness: Who’s Laughing Now?
Out of darkness, artists shine. This essay contemplates some among many who use humour, irony, cheekiness, exaggeration and other subversive strategies to disrupt systems of meaning in public space. For them, humour is the operative that exposes the discrepancy between the world as it is presented and the world as it is experienced, revealing the hidden power structures that shape civic life. These dynamics become especially visible when various forms of humour expose how authority operates in plain sight; that is, where social control depends on people performing normality.
, 2025, Enamel on bronze, 29.5 × 41.4 × 1.5 cm copy.jpg)
