The word “gag” can mean a lot of things: a joke, a restraint, a limit on speech or the physical act of retching or choking.
The latest exhibition at the George Eastman Museum, “GAG,” explores all of those definitions through contemporary photographs and videos. The exhibition, open through April 11, balances absurdity and dark humor while exploring the definitions of its title: sight gags, judicial gag orders, queer ballroom vernacular, BDSM and more.
“Gag, as a word, has a rich history in cinema studies, in particular, the sight gag, we think about the great tradition of silent film and figures like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, but even the earliest experiments with filmmakers figuring out what it was that film could do,” said
Phil Taylor, associate curator in the Department of Photography and curator of “GAG.” “Photography really doesn't have a comparable vocabulary or tradition of thinking about humor in quite the same way. And so one of the ambitions of this project is to rectify that.”
The exhibition mixes media: photographs, including digital manipulations and edits; videos shown on screens and projectors; and a sculpture of Justin Bieber’s tattooed torso. Work from artists like Peggy Ahwesh, Paul Pfeiffer and Tala Madani is included in the exhibition, which debuted on Oct. 2.
Among the installations for “GAG” is “Tête-à-tête-à-tête-à-tête-à-tête,” which was created by American artist Lucas Blalock specifically for the exhibition. In photographs arranged on five motorized turntables, Blalock is seen immobile with a clown nose, bulbous fake eyes or wind-up teeth.
“We might question if this person is even alive in these images, but that seems to get at some of the work that goes into creative work, that goes into life at this point in time, the need to maintain a good image and to entertain and to please, and that sometimes falls flat,” Taylor said.
Another section of the exhibition, “Oral Fixation,” focuses on the mouth and the more literal definition of gagging. Among the works in that section is “Mid Iron” by Norwegian photographer Torbjorn Rodland, which shows the model with a five iron golf club emerging from their mouth. The image is filled with ambiguities, Taylor said. How much of the golf club is in the person’s mouth or throat? Why are they doing it? Is this for a fashion shoot or something else?
“It doesn’t offer clear answers by any means but I think literally gets at the sense of gag, but also exemplifies another important aspect of how I have theorized gag in line with queer vernacular as a sense of sort of astonishment, of being stupefied,” Taylor said.
A lot of the images in the exhibition function as such, drawing an immediate reaction from the viewer, encouraging them to ask what they’re looking at.
“And that might start as amusement or entertainment,” Taylor said. “And then the more you look, the more it sort of curdles, gets stranger and weirder, but doesn’t resolve itself.”
“GAG” runs through April 11 at the George Eastman Museum. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Adult admission is $23, while senior admission is $21 and student admission is $9 with ID.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: ‘GAG’ gets weird at George Eastman Museum
