Only thing left is to
have a good laugh
Listen to people laugh anywhere in the world and you'll hear roughly the same sound. Writing it down though, is something else.
In English, it's hahaha… Spanish uses jajaja…, because the letter j is pronounced like an English h. Thai uses 55555, because five is pronounced ha… Japanese uses wwwww, derived from warai (笑い), the word for laughter… Korean uses ㅋㅋㅋㅋ, repeating the consonant ㅋ to mimic a clipped laugh. Portuguese uses kkkkkk… Indonesian uses wkwkwk, descended from wakaka… Chinese uses 哈哈哈哈, using the character 哈 (hā), which sounds like the laugh itself.
The sound is the same, but the writing takes different paths.
This series was made during a time that has been, by any measure, a lot. Every day, without pause, we hear about wars, artificial intelligence, rising temperatures, rising costs. More wars. More artificial intelligence. Higher temperatures. Higher costs. On repeat. And an endless supply of people absolutely convinced they know what's going on. And another group of people completely unconvinced that any of these things are really happening.
There comes a point when the world just exceeds our ability to make sense of it. Too absurd.. too contradictory.. too fast.. too strange.. too everything. You can spend a lifetime trying to explain it, trying to keep up with it, and still end up standing exactly where you started.
And the only thing left is to have a good laugh.
English (hahaha)
Spanish (jajaja)
Thai (55555)
Japanese (wwwww)
Korean (ㅋㅋㅋㅋ)
Portuguese (kkkkkk)
Indonesian (wkwkwk)
Chinese (哈哈哈哈)
ARTWORK DETAILS
Charcoal on archival paper.
Float-mounted on wood panel and framed in teak.
One piece only. Available online here.