Screening // Comedy Television Meets Art in Conglomerate’s Block Three

By Katharine Doyle

What are the implications of an artwork that is funny? This question arises when artistic production extends beyond conventional gallery contexts and begins engaging with forms of mainstream media. Whether contemporary art that is entertaining can have the potential to be deeply critical is a divisive matter. Historically, art has been distinguished from popular media, owing to the former’s measure of seriousness. Within ‘Block Three’, the latest production of online artist-run TV channel Conglomerate, humour is entangled with sober critique, mockery and appropriation. In this way, the gulf between art and popular forms of media is not only bridged, but expertly fused.

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