MOCA, LOS ANGELES, LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE: SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

AUGUST 16 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2017

Laughing on the Outside: Selections from the Permanent Collection presents artworks from MOCA’s collection that register the ludicrous, the impossible, and the playful. On view are stairs that lead to nowhere, invitations to exhibitions that contain no objects, and boots that appear to walk by themselves. The centerpiece is Gabriel Orozco’s interactive sculpture Ping Pond Table (Mesa de ping-pong con estanque) (1998). Museumgoers are invited to play with the paddles and balls provided, though it is likely they will need to invent new rules for a new game. While the artists belong to different periods and nations, they all orient art toward play, often via absurdity and ridiculousness, and in ways that deflate the grandiosity that sometimes accompanies the word “art.”