On Labor and Management

“On Labor and Management” is a contribution to “Parts of Speech,” an exhibition organized by Triple Canopy and Public Fiction with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

In a performance, Julio Torres will reflect on how comedy acts as a vehicle for criticism, persuasion, and even manipulation. Drawing on his experience as a comic and a writer for shows such as Saturday Night Live, Torres will craft a monologue from the perspective of the pig that resides under the sink, acting as a garbage disposal, on The Flintstones: the pig petitions the family for a promotion—from eating to managing trash—and comes to wonder why his species must deal with human waste at all. Torres will use this scenario to consider how stand-up routines and sketches establish expectations, roles, and styles of communication for performers as well as audiences.

As trust in traditional figures of authority—institutions, public servants, business leaders, journalists—has dwindled, comedians have come to be hailed for expressing unvarnished political opinions (and avoiding the taint of parties or corporate money). They speak to millions of viewers, many of whom have few other sources of news. And while late-night monologues and YouTube clips might enable comedians to speak truth to power, and even foster public debate about immigration or gun control, comedians also tell viewers what they want to hear. To succeed is to create authentic-seeming personas and resonant messages that satisfy the desires and confirm the beliefs of audiences—often with the assistance of a studio audience that is prompted to laugh, cheer, and applaud. Torres’s speech will ask how audiences understand themselves to be fabricated through comedy, and how they might watch themselves watching the performer.

On Labor and Management is a component of “Parts of Speech,” an exhibition on public speech organized by Triple Canopy and Public Fiction with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition hinges on six experimental lectures, which will be live-streamed only at the museum; edited documentation will be available on Triple Canopy’s website at a later date. [Since the publication of this page, the online work adapted from the event has been published.] “Parts of Speech” is being published by Triple Canopy as a series in Two Ears and One Mouth, a forthcoming issue that examines how we speak and listen and who has the right and capacity to be heard.

Parts of Speech is made possible in part through the generous support of the Stolbun Collection and Karyn Kohl and Silas Dilworth. Triple Canopy has received additional support for Two Ears One Mouth from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts; and the Opaline Fund of the Jewish Community Endowment Federation and Endowment Fund.