Comedy/Tragedy by Alice Lang, 2023

This ceramic work measures 35 centimetres wide by 48 centimetres high by 17 centimetres deep. The work is part of a series of torsos that are shaped like t-shirts, puffed out as if inhabited by a body. The sculpture is glazed to look like a smiley face was drawn on the chest of the figure in sunscreen prior to getting burnt. This translates to the two nipples representing eyes and the belly button covered in an upturned smile. This smiley face reveals cream coloured skin tones alongside the pasty white of a chest lathered up in sun cream ready to brave the elements of a harsh Australian summer. On the back of the torso another face appears, this time displaying a pronounced frown, like an upside-down letter ‘U.’ The eyes are represented by round circles like the sunscreen has been cleared away from this part of the body. The opposing sides denote the antithetical nature of each, a tragicomedy evoking elements of comedy and tragedy in concert with one another.

The torso is displayed on a table with a flower shaped top and base with rounded petals which is placed in the window of the Art Museum. The table top is supported by three legs, a tripod that is attached to the base for stability. The top is painted a grey blue colour and the base is painted a red-pink colour. The smiley face on the torso faces out onto the footpath outside whilst the frowning face is shown towards the viewer inside the Art Museum. Included alongside other torso works in the exhibition these sculptures move between macho ideas of body painting at sporting events, headless men from medieval manuscripts and torsos painted with flowers in the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967.

The artist describes the work as follows, “these works merge the aesthetic of classical sculpture with novelty ceramic objects to play with the long history between the body and sculpture in which bodies are often used as symbols or allegory. These are vulnerable, fragmented bodies that have no agency, but their sunburn allows them to flitter briefly in the realm of the real, utilising humour to locate and confuse the body as a site of objectification.”