The Ha-Ha Crystal
Maria Stenfors, London
Artists: Allen Grubesic, Colin Guillemet, Niamh O’Malley, Jason Rohrer and David Lynch
Curated by Chris Fite-Wassilak
Allen Grubesic “The Last Laugh†(2007) India ink in Langton Aq 300gr. Image courtesy of the artist and Maria Stenfors
Maria Stenfors gallery’s group show “The Ha-Ha Crystal†originally refers to Robert Smithson’s analytical model for defining different types of laughter, according to what he calls The Six Main Crystal Systems, as an attempt to find answers on how to visualize the dimensions beyond our usual three:
“[R. Buckminster] Fuller was told by certain scientists that the fourth dimension was ‘ha-ha’, in other words, that it is laughter…Laughter is in a sense a kind of entropic ‘verbalisation.’ How could artists translate this verbal entropy, that is ‘ha-ha’, into solid models?†*
Here the four artists in The Ha-Ha Crystal exhibition endeavor to suggest possible responses to this rhetorical question. With Allen Grubesic’s “The Last Laugh†(2007) three identical white prints literally spell out “HA HA HA†in thick black typo, which don’t quite stand as words rather than a straightforward phonetic illustration. This quasi-iconic code crystallizes with Grubesic’s use of a generic typeface, to directly tap into our collective memory of laughter. Continue reading “Review: The Ha-Ha Crystal at Maria Stenfors, London”