The Pleasure of Misuse

Curator
Royal Society of Sculptors, London
2025

Opening 29 May, 6-8.30 PM with performance by Andy Holden
29 May - 13 July 2025

Artists: Glen Baxter, Ingrid Berthon-Moine, Appau Junior Boakye–Yiadom, Abraham Cruzvillegas, CFGNY, Melanie Ebenhoch, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Gina Fischli, Graham Gussin, Holly Hendry, Ty Locke, Andy Holden, Jean-Luc Moulène, Cornelia Parker, Amalia Pica, Aziza Shadenova, Holly Stevenson and Richard Wentworth

Co-curated by Maria Hinel and Indira Dyussebayeva-Ziyabek

“The great virtue of humour is that it is philosophising in action, a bright silver thread in the great duvet of existence” – Simon Critchley, philosopher

Comic possibilities of the everyday abound for the perceptive eye. This exhibition considers the comedy of mundane objects, cases of accidental or deliberate ‘misuse’ that can afford particularly liberating moments of laughter and joy. Stripped of their intended function, familiar objects become manifestly absurd, whilst questioning our own place in the order of things through their ineptitude.

The humour that springs from manipulating or referencing the mundane is paradoxically self-reflexive – appropriated objects suddenly appear anthropomorphic, our laughter becomes directed at ourselves and the intermittent absurdity of the human condition. Humble mass-produced things can also complete us, operating as extensions of our bodies or even stand-ins for the self, and there is, at times, something cathartic about the misuse and play involving these. Bringing together works by fifteen international artists, The Pleasure of Misuse explores the mechanics and psychology of humour in the everyday, considering its potential to heal and its power to disarm, creating the sense of complicity and the space for self-reflection amid these anxious times.

In part constructed as jokes by swapping words with objects, many works in the exhibition project the subversive quality of humour, its ability to render the status quo patently contingent, rather than absolute. Punching holes in the rational continuum of our daily lives, jokes and humorous objects are thus not unlike a philosophical enquiry – inviting us to step outside the situation and consider is from non-involved viewpoint. As Wittgenstein famously noted, “A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”

Outside the gallery during the opening on 29 May, 6-8.30PM, Andy Holden will be staging a sale of Beerbottle Stalagmites (2007 - ). These are 'original multiples', or ‘fakes’, created by pouring excess plaster over beer bottles that have accumulated in the studio.

The works are the result of the artist imitating himself. They are hastily made with limited consideration, but in the process the resulting ‘souvenirs’ become arguably more authentic in their directness and unfiltered expression. The resulting forms appear as eroded religious figurines, calcified objects, geological artefacts, melted candles, cartoon figures, or ironic, phallic trophies.

The ongoing work gently questions art’s economic status, as this series of works are only sold outside of the gallery like tourist trinkets. A different value system is applied: as ‘fakes’ these become affordable artworks sold to those attending the exhibition. The ‘sale’ shifts the emphasis from the finished work to the studio process and from sculpture back to performance. The dissemination of the works into a modest domestic environment completes the work.

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