Michael Smith and Bedwyr Williams In Conversation With Mark Beasley, The Humorists

On a floor that looks like a marked basketball court, there are multiple older people lying down and asleep in different positions around a man with extremely long legs, in all white, with a spotlight on him. There are plates of food, and random home objects surrounding the people. Their clothes and blankets are colourful. Some of the people sleeping are repeated in the artwork.

There is stage and an audience sitting in front of the stage. AA man wearing a baby diaper and clothes with a baby cap, has a whistle in his mouth and a plastic bag in one of his hands. His other hand is trying to reach out to a box that an audience member is holding. There are random audience members holding children's toys, including a toy telephone.

Tramway

As Kant had it, only humour and music have the power to reach those parts that other, more academic forms cannot reach. If the comedian works for laughs then the humorist is one that seeks to play with its catch, turning it on its head and pointing to the ungainly crack in its backside. Two international artists-cum-humorists discuss the critical role of humour within their work.

The discussion was followed by the individual performances by Michael Smith and Bedwyr Williams.

Mark Beasley is curator-at-large at Performs, New York and was co-curator (with Glasgow International Director Sarah McCroy) of Michael Smith and Bedwyr William's Tramway exhibits.

Commissioned by Glasgow International.