Pratfall Tramps catalog release party

Pratfall Tramps catalog release party!
WED, APRIL 1, 2015
7-9PM

PRE-SALES THROUGH MARCH 31, 2015: $20 USD
DOMESTIC SHIPPING: $6 USD
(Retail: $25 USD on April 1, 2015 and after)

Pick up and/or purchase your catalog at the release party!
This is a limited edition catalog published on the occasion of Pratfall Tramps.

Email international inquiries to: rreese@thecontemporary.org
Please allow 7-10 days for handling and shipping.

Description
This catalog is published on the occasion of Pratfall Tramps

Information
ISBN: 978-0-9961716-0-1
Exhibition Curator and Catalog Editor: Rachel Reese, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Essayist: Alex Robins, PhD Philosophy, Emory University
Designer: K. Tauches
Photographer: Jan Rattia
Copy Editor: Sarah McKee
Publisher: Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Edition of 500
40 pages, french fold, full color with wrap cover
Printed by Standard Press, Atlanta, Georgia

Including
Essays by Rachel Reese, exhibition curator, and Alex Robins, PhD in Philosophy at Emory University. Robins’ research focuses on American philosophy and aesthetics including theories of comedy. Full color artwork reproductions and installation images. With additional contributions by all four exhibiting artists, and Dr. Peter McGraw, director of the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Copyright © 2015
The artists, authors, and Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
All rights reserved

About the exhibition
Pratfall Tramps
Tammy Rae Carland
Jamie Isenstein
Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Mary Reid Kelley

Curated by Rachel Reese

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
February 6–April 11, 2015

How do we begin to qualify and draw connections between artists and artworks dealing with or about ‘funniness’ as subject matter, however individualized? Can artworks, as physical objects and documents, themselves be funny or alternatively cringe-worthy, rather than just about humor? Pratfall Tramps—featuring Tammy Rae Carland, Jamie Isenstein, Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Mary Reid Kelley—investigates an artwork’s comedic desire. Each artist’s personal visual styles and narratives ‘tramp’ comedic avenues as a means to explore their sculptures, videos, and photographs through deviations from ‘norms’ (whether cultural, social, logical, or linguistic): a candle cannot evade its own snuffing.

The presented artistic contexts and conceptual positions in these four female artists’ practices include references to mainstream comedy’s systems and authors, and some are more explicitly gendered than others with literal and implied connections to the female body. Pratfalls—bodily or object-based—are funny because they are a paradox. While suggesting lack of control, there is indeed complete and conscious control at play: in comedy, the performer can rewire failure as success. The pratfall reveals an innate human truth, and comedy is exactly about incorporating such folly, or potential for failure, into our actions.

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
535 Means Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
thecontemporary.org