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Amusement dark: "black humor" in the installations of Adel Abidin

[...] it has been said, or something close to it: "black humor" is how New York Times art critic Carol Vogel described Abidin's 2007 installation, "Abidin Travels," in her review of the Nordic Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. [...] it is precisely because Abidin positio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Afterimage 2011-07, Vol.39 (1-2), p.58-59
Main Author: St Jacques, Jillian
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[...] it has been said, or something close to it: "black humor" is how New York Times art critic Carol Vogel described Abidin's 2007 installation, "Abidin Travels," in her review of the Nordic Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. [...] it is precisely because Abidin positions so many of these elements on the same interstitial playing field that his works complicate what is defined as "humor" - which, as Julia Kristeva points out in Revolution in Poetic Language (1984), is not always a prerequisite of laughter. [...] the fact that humor is not always present in Abidin's work makes his pieces more rewarding, as the artist tangibly resists perpetuating a trademark aesthetic.
ISSN:0300-7472
2578-8531