"Sometimes even a cup of tea can fail"
In a hyper-connected world, Samantha Cheng's durational performances examine failure as a generative space. In the final episode of Comic Release Joe Jowitt talks to Samantha about time, labour and the body.
00:00: Introduction to Samantha's practice by Joe Jowitt
1.50: Joe - "There seems to be a real tension between comedy and exhaustion in your practice. Could you start by describing what draws you to humour as a material or method?" Samantha describes her masters research on failure.
3.30: Humour as a personal practice. Samantha asks Joe "What do you find funny? Where does your humour come from?"
5.00: On making the video Happy Ever After (2021). The classic film trope of a happy ending. The repetitive gesture in Happy Ever After.
7.10: Joe compares the work to classic cinema devices "the fall, the loop, the failed gag". He compares the work to Bas Jan Ader and the slapstick tradition of Buster Keaton
8:13: The 'failure of narrative' in the work. Samantha describes watching it with an audience. Joe on the Sisyphean metaphor of human striving but never getting there.
9:20: Failure as a response to the problem of a highly optimised society. On failure, paranoia and contemporary digital surveillance and data harvesting.
12:00: Humour and abstract art. Inefficiency in Samantha's practice. Samantha - "It's not the really big failures that I'm interested in... smaller ones have more of a disruptive agency".
13:00: On the work Take a 10 (2022), work and labour. Time as money. "...making that work allowed me to kind of view what 10 minutes actually really felt like. 'Cause in a break, 10 minutes goes by so quickly doing that video felt like doing it for hours".
15:30: How does the absurd fit in your practice? Being "in on the joke".
16:30 Western academic descriptions of humour versus origins of Samantha's own humour. Family.
17:10: How important is it to perform the work yourself?
18:10: Social media as influence
19:30: On work Steep dreams (2024).
21:00: Humour found in everyday life. How do you write about the big subjects? "You can start by writing about the small ones and then maybe we'll get there".
22:00: On Passengers (2023) public event, produced for Chez Derriere.
23:30: Mass/Mess project at Window Gallery.
24:24: On spontaneity and not over-working humour. Working in a space where humour is not welcome.
26:00: What does it offer the viewer to ask questions about boundaries?
26:43: Anti-ICE protests in USA using costumes. "Autocrats hate humour".
27:30: Is humour a way to stay present in the world? Weaponisation of humour. Individual sense of what's funny versus other people's interpretation.
28:58: END
All content for CIRCUIT CAST is the property of www.circuit.org.nz and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
"Sometimes even a cup of tea can fail"
In a hyper-connected world, Samantha Cheng's durational performances examine failure as a generative space. In the final episode of Comic Release Joe Jowitt talks to Samantha about time, labour and the body.
00:00: Introduction to Samantha's practice by Joe Jowitt
1.50: Joe - "There seems to be a real tension between comedy and exhaustion in your practice. Could you start by describing what draws you to humour as a material or method?" Samantha describes her masters research on failure.
3.30: Humour as a personal practice. Samantha asks Joe "What do you find funny? Where does your humour come from?"
5.00: On making the video Happy Ever After (2021). The classic film trope of a happy ending. The repetitive gesture in Happy Ever After.
7.10: Joe compares the work to classic cinema devices "the fall, the loop, the failed gag". He compares the work to Bas Jan Ader and the slapstick tradition of Buster Keaton
8:13: The 'failure of narrative' in the work. Samantha describes watching it with an audience. Joe on the Sisyphean metaphor of human striving but never getting there.
9:20: Failure as a response to the problem of a highly optimised society. On failure, paranoia and contemporary digital surveillance and data harvesting.
12:00: Humour and abstract art. Inefficiency in Samantha's practice. Samantha - "It's not the really big failures that I'm interested in... smaller ones have more of a disruptive agency".
13:00: On the work Take a 10 (2022), work and labour. Time as money. "...making that work allowed me to kind of view what 10 minutes actually really felt like. 'Cause in a break, 10 minutes goes by so quickly doing that video felt like doing it for hours".
15:30: How does the absurd fit in your practice? Being "in on the joke".
16:30 Western academic descriptions of humour versus origins of Samantha's own humour. Family.
17:10: How important is it to perform the work yourself?
18:10: Social media as influence
19:30: On work Steep dreams (2024).
21:00: Humour found in everyday life. How do you write about the big subjects? "You can start by writing about the small ones and then maybe we'll get there".
22:00: On Passengers (2023) public event, produced for Chez Derriere.
23:30: Mass/Mess project at Window Gallery.
24:24: On spontaneity and not over-working humour. Working in a space where humour is not welcome.
26:00: What does it offer the viewer to ask questions about boundaries?
26:43: Anti-ICE protests in USA using costumes. "Autocrats hate humour".
27:30: Is humour a way to stay present in the world? Weaponisation of humour. Individual sense of what's funny versus other people's interpretation.
28:58: END
"If I didn't laugh, I'd cry."
Comic Release is a three-part podcast series hosted by artist Joe Jowitt which explores the use of humour in artists' moving image.
In this conversation, Joe meets Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-born, Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker Sean Grattan, whose debut feature film, Policy Wonks, explores the clash of liberal ideologies through an absurd intersection of "money, guns and yoga." Joe and Sean discuss using slogans as dialogue, working with clichés, and deprogramming problematic humour from one's own cultural upbringing.
CIRCUIT CAST
"Sometimes even a cup of tea can fail"
In a hyper-connected world, Samantha Cheng's durational performances examine failure as a generative space. In the final episode of Comic Release Joe Jowitt talks to Samantha about time, labour and the body.
00:00: Introduction to Samantha's practice by Joe Jowitt
1.50: Joe - "There seems to be a real tension between comedy and exhaustion in your practice. Could you start by describing what draws you to humour as a material or method?" Samantha describes her masters research on failure.
3.30: Humour as a personal practice. Samantha asks Joe "What do you find funny? Where does your humour come from?"
5.00: On making the video Happy Ever After (2021). The classic film trope of a happy ending. The repetitive gesture in Happy Ever After.
7.10: Joe compares the work to classic cinema devices "the fall, the loop, the failed gag". He compares the work to Bas Jan Ader and the slapstick tradition of Buster Keaton
8:13: The 'failure of narrative' in the work. Samantha describes watching it with an audience. Joe on the Sisyphean metaphor of human striving but never getting there.
9:20: Failure as a response to the problem of a highly optimised society. On failure, paranoia and contemporary digital surveillance and data harvesting.
12:00: Humour and abstract art. Inefficiency in Samantha's practice. Samantha - "It's not the really big failures that I'm interested in... smaller ones have more of a disruptive agency".
13:00: On the work Take a 10 (2022), work and labour. Time as money. "...making that work allowed me to kind of view what 10 minutes actually really felt like. 'Cause in a break, 10 minutes goes by so quickly doing that video felt like doing it for hours".
15:30: How does the absurd fit in your practice? Being "in on the joke".
16:30 Western academic descriptions of humour versus origins of Samantha's own humour. Family.
17:10: How important is it to perform the work yourself?
18:10: Social media as influence
19:30: On work Steep dreams (2024).
21:00: Humour found in everyday life. How do you write about the big subjects? "You can start by writing about the small ones and then maybe we'll get there".
22:00: On Passengers (2023) public event, produced for Chez Derriere.
23:30: Mass/Mess project at Window Gallery.
24:24: On spontaneity and not over-working humour. Working in a space where humour is not welcome.
26:00: What does it offer the viewer to ask questions about boundaries?
26:43: Anti-ICE protests in USA using costumes. "Autocrats hate humour".
27:30: Is humour a way to stay present in the world? Weaponisation of humour. Individual sense of what's funny versus other people's interpretation.
28:58: END
