Putting On: manifesto

‘Putting on’ is a collaborative project that embraces the revolutionary potential of humour, folk culture and the carnivalesque by exploring the clown in his age-old role as a masquerading fool, a trickster, a joker and jester. The arists Natasha Caruana, Wiebke Leister and Daphne Plessner see these elements as subversive strategies and tools for commenting on contemporary social life.

‘Putting On’ is a subject-specific 3 women artists’ collective. We organize variable exhibitions, interventions and public dissemination projects based on exploring the revolutionary potential of humour, circus spectacle and the carnivalesque. Founded in 2009 with its headquarters located in South London, the project investigates subversive strategies as tools for commenting on contemporary social life. Born out of an interest in reinventing comedy, we explore the evolution of the clown figure in its age-old roles as masquerading fool, trickster, joker and jester, which emerge out of all cultures. The collective celebrates the image and act of clowning, teasing and fooling around in a de-contextualised sense through documentation and artwork in the form of display, publication and performance

Natasha Caruana’s photographs and films tease out the relationship between the outsider and the group. Daphne Plessner’s painted posters and installations make use of the extravagant and paradoxical language of the circus poster to chilling effect and Wiebke Leister’s photographs and drawings interrogate the facial canvas in relation to laughter and irony.

In addition to their individual responses, the artists aim to present this collaborative project to the general public with an open invitation to visitors to participate in the social and political lampoonery, alter the displays and engage in the events hosted by the artists in ‘Putting On’ a show.

Joseph Kosuth, in “Art and Its Public” defined an artist community as “…a community of artists who collectively, through individual effort, define what is meaningful at a particular historical moment concretely within the practice of their activity.” And comedian Stephen Fry, while viciously ripping into a head of lettuce, asks why making a salad (with no other motive other than love!) (and a decent desire!) is so frustratingly futile. A number of artists and writers were invited to address the question: is there such a thing as an artist community? Do they feel a part of one? What constitutes it? What would it mean to be able to collectively define meaning today, in a diverse and ever-changing art world?

Insert Press in collaboration with MATERIAL, an artist-run journal publishing and supporting the artist’s voice, has collected the responses to this question and created a publication of these texts that begin to describe our ‘particular moment.’ With cover design and screenprinting by Maggie White Lomeli and Insert Press, and interior layout design & typesetting by Daniel Lucas, The Futility of Making Salad features texts by the following artists: Harold Abramowitz
, Stan Apps, 
Marcus Civin, 
Ginny Cook, 
Dorit Cypis, 
Robin Dicker, 
Bradney Evans, 
Nicholas Grider, 
Dan Hockenson, 
Peter Kirby, 
Elana Mann, 
Melanie Nakaue
, Julie Orser, 
Adam Overton, 
Putting On, 
Declan Rooney, 
Kim Schoen, 
Charlotte Smith, 
Jesper List Thompsen, 
Mathew Timmons, 
Jason Underhill.