Putting on Clown Make-up

Putting on Clown Makeup
30 April – 12 June 2022

Putting on Clown Makeup is an exhibition of new sculptural works reimagining the office as a scene of baroque drama. In these works the figure of the clown becomes a tragicomic protagonist who suffers through the self-fulfilling and self-sabotaging work ethic of late capitalism.

In the halo of a spotlight in a darkened room, a Nespresso machine sits waiting to be used. The audience is invited to make themselves a coffee, and as they press the button to expel an espresso, the machine roars the apex of the famous operatic aria Vesti la giubba by Ruggero Leoncavallo. As the shot pours, the music crescendos in the line “laugh, clown!”, and the banality of the office coffee machine and the baroque drama of the operatic aria unite in the sure sentiment that “the show must go on”.

Giorgi’s exhibition takes its title from the meme “Putting on Clown Makeup”. According to knowyourmeme.com, “Putting onClown Makeup refers to a series of memes based on a step-by-step tutorial guide for applying clown makeup, used to illustrate a person making an increasingly larger fool of themselves by providing arguments which are deemed increasingly weak or illogical”. The meme has often been used to critique the neoliberal work ethic, which praises “bootstrap” go-getters that dedicate themselves to the hustle, whose logic implies a complete subsumption of life into the realm of work.

Pascale Giorgi is a multidisciplinary artist living in Walyalup/Fremantle. In her practice, totems of classical culture are subverted through humour and the absurd to make way for mash-ups, hybrids and(lost-in) translations, often drawing from her cultural heritage as an Italo-Australian. Giorgi has produced experimental festivals, events, writing, and exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including at Cool Change, PrivateIsland, Runway, and Perth Festival.

Photos by Dan Grant

https://www.goolugatup-heathcote.com.au/exhibitions/pascale-giorgi