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Humour and the Commodification of Suffering

Strategies of Cultural Resilience in Contemporary Art

Bibliographic Data

ID12224239
AuthorsChrisoula Lionis (0000-0001-6307-3790, Twitter (United States), corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume35
Issue5
Pages605-623
Publication date2021-09-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThird Text (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-8822 • E-ISSN: 1475-5297
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09528822.2021.1985250
OpenAlexW3199555217
LanguageEN
Citations received3

The emphasis on precarity and conflict in contemporary art has meant that artists from sites of crisis are frequently framed as ‘local informants’, expected to perform cultural capital by narrating experiences of marginality and political conflict. This has meant that in contrast to the sphere of popular culture where marginalised groups are expected to engage humour to ‘perform’ their identity (eg POC, female, queer stand-up comedians), performances of ‘sincerity’, ‘authenticity’ and truth remain central to intercultural encounters in contemporary art. Framed by discussion of how humour in contemporary art differs to ‘everyday’ visual forms (memes, graffiti etc), this article considers how humour is used as a political strategy by artists from diverse sites of crisis: Greece, Palestine and Indigenous Australia. Analysing the work of artists Khaled Hourani, Richard Bell, and Kostis Stafylakis, it demonstrates how humour in contemporary art contributes to three forms of cultural resilience: ‘authenticity’, ‘enactment’, and ‘placemaking’

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Commodification · Contemporary art · Contemporary society · Graffiti · Indigenous · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Precarity · Queer · Sincerity · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Artistic and Creative Research · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law

  • “Playing the white man’s game”

    Open Access•Massih Zekavat•Journal of Postcolonial Writing•2026

  • “We are snowflakes”

    Open Access•Fan Xiao•Global Media and China•2023

  • The limits of satire, or the reification of cultural politics

    Open Access•N Holm•Thesis Eleven•2023

Unique citing works3
Citations per year1
Citation span2023 - 2026 (4)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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