Don’t Confuse Your Conceptualists: Text, Humour and Conceptualism

This essay considers humour and contemporary art practice as cultural forces, through which the expression of the intangible is possible. These ideas are examined through my recent works: Everything I Know About History…, an installation in advertising space; Don’t Confuse Your Conceptualists and My Roommate Recalls a Text Work, large vinyl wall text installations; and the artist books Synopses, Missed Connections, and Excerpt. Related to imagination, humour and art practices have the ability to access something vital that is beyond the reach of language alone. I consider French philosopher Henri Bergson’s theories of humour, determining the function of humour to be human and social, while looking to the contemporary poet Kenneth Goldsmith to further my understanding of conceptual writing practices. Early conceptualism is defined as a precedent for my practice. Mirroring and reframing existing content, repetition, humour, and self-reflexivity are strategies I use to make artwork in a post-conceptual trajectory.TextIronyWritingHumourLanguag