BitterSweet

BitterSweet / ManisGetir
Exhibition about the importance of Humor / Pameran tentang Pentingnya Humor

Agan Harahap
Agus Suwage
Akiq AW
Eddi Prabandono
Eko Nugroho
indieguerillas
Nastasha Abigail
oomleo
Saleh Hussein
S. Teddy D.
Tromarama
Yudha 'Fehung'

Opening / Pembukaan:
2 July 2015, 19.30

Exhibition / Pameran:
2 July - 1 Agustus 2015, 09.00 - 17.00
Closed on Sunday & Monday

Humour is an important aspect of our daily lives. Through humour we are able to connect, to provoke, to criticize, but also to employ diplomacy and discover solutions. When something makes us laugh, it contains something that disrupts our mental patterns and conventional expectations and in turn, provokes creative thinking.
Cemeti Art House invited twelve artists whose works show diverse aspects of humour. Humour is not the theme of their work, but humour is the format or the method and an important aspect of communicating the message of their work. With this understanding, most of the works that feature in this exhibition are older works and a small number of artists created new works specifically for this exhibition.
We can find many theories about humour itself such as the relief theory, the superiority theory, etc., but humour in relation to visual language has a purpose of its own. During the New Order regime, in comics, cartoons, folk theatre, and in the shadow puppet plays, it was only through humour that critical notes or ideas towards the regime could be expressed and circulated. Sensitive issues can become communicable through sarcasm and the use of bittersweet satires, but of course they require an accute understanding of its social meaning and context. Humour is inseparable from the arts and is able to fulfill a specific role in bridging the message of a work to the public.