DeCordova
gains wit with show
by Mary Sherman
excerpt from The Boston Herald, Sunday, February 4, 2001
With many politicians still convinced that culture is as much of
a threat to public life as guns or poverty, getting art to lighten
up seems long overdue. So the DeCordova Museum's "Lighten Up: Art With a Sense of Humor"
is most welcome. The show provides a solid dose of wit and mischievousness
at the time when the art world could sorely use it. [...]
Canned goods provide a visual pun in Jeffu Warmouth's elbow macaroni
label, which sports human elbows instead of pasta. "Rather than
be reconstituted by these products that I ingest and invest in,"
Warmouth says, "I want to put a little bit of me in every can."[...]
Teddy Dibble parodies TV ads in a hilarious series of videos in
which a quite ordinary person is coached in how to kiss ("Rules
of Kissing") and in ways of coughing ("The Cough"). Much sillier
is Warmouth's low-tech video "Kung-fu Kitchen," a kind of Japanese
B-movie send-up in which vegetables and fruits, with names like
"Oh Ran Ji" and "Ah-Po," vie to become emperor.
Humor is Artform
by Robin Vaughan
excerpt from The Boston Herald, Friday, February 9, 2001
A couple reads the joke product names in "Super Jeffu Market," a sculpture installation by Jeffu Warmouth. The artist, a member of the Boston-based art-school-wrestling team Kaiju Big Battel (members dress like Japanese monster-movie characters and stomp styrofoam cityscapes and each other), doesn't shy away from making statements. How the messages are interpreted is anyone's guess.
"Oh look, honey," says a DeCordova guest, reading a label aloud to her husband, "crushed resolve!"
'Lighten Up' Makes art funny business
by Cate McQuaid
excerpt from The Boston Globe, Saturday, April 14, 2001
Most people take art seriously - maybe too seriously. The DeCordova Museum hopes to change that with "Lighten Up: Art With a Sense of Humor," a show that aims for your funny bone. [...]
Many of the artists take off from popular culture, including (nod to Warhol) mass marketing. Jeffu Warmouth's "Super Jeffumarket" is boxes and supermarket shelves full of cans presumably filled with the artist's own tasty personal byproducts: "canned lungs," "raw nerves," and "drained self-esteem." It's all in the packaging, we're told, and in packaging himself, Warmouth somehow sadly reinvigorates his self-esteem.
Local comic's advice to artists at DeCordova
by Globe Staff
excerpt from The Boston Globe, Saturday, April 14, 2001
The critic has spoken. But what would a comedian say about "Lighten Up: Art With a Sense of Humor?" In his best "artistic" beret, local comic Rich Ceisler cruised
through the galleries. He arrived with expectations:
"The image of an artist submitting his comical pieces to the museum
board, sweating and tugging at his tie a la Dangerfield, muttering
'tough curator' is what comes to mind," he said before he went. Here's what he had to say after: [...]
"I enjoyed Jeffu Warmouth's collection of tin cans with creative labels such as 'Forked Tongue,' 'Peeled Toes,' and 'Crushed Resolve.' Obviously to be enjoyed with a fine Chianti and fava beans."
©2004 by Jeff "Jeffu" Warmouth |
