Art Sun Apr 20 2008

Laughter: The Best Medicine for Social Ills?

Two Hyde Park art institutions are featuring exhibitions that make use of humor and absurdity to explore African-American identity in art and culture.

At the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society, “Black Is, Black Ain’t” examines the tension in contemporary culture between the desire to move beyond race and the race consciousness that such a desire necessarily cultivates. The exhibition poster by Carl Pope (pictured above) is one example of the exhibition’s exploration of the controversy surrounding the rhetoric of race. In addition to the work on display, the Society will host a series of discussions, lectures, and performances that deal with race as an artistic, political, and social concept.

While “Black is, Black Ain’t” considers, in part, how the public discourse on race is changing, much of the work in “Disinhibition: Black Art and Blue Humor” at the Hyde Park Art Center ignores political correctness to use humor as a means of confronting stereotypes and taboos. Similar to the approach of Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock, the show’s humor attempts to force viewers to face uncomfortable truths by incorporating them into cunning and entertaining commentary.

"Black is, Black Ain’t" runs at the Renassance Society from April 20 to June 8. “Disinhibition: Black Art and Blue Humor” will be at the Hyde Park Art Center through June 22.

- Jamie Smith