A Commentary on the Declining Population of Clowns
Wood, Acrylic Paint, Micron Pen, Graph, Clown Noses, Sad Clown, Accordion
2024, Vanderbilt University
Artist and Performer: Mady Johnston
Accordion and Sad Clown: Sam Sliman
This multi-media piece talks about the idea of the “wise fool.” It’s a piece on the use of satire as a call out and recognition of the absurd truth.
Stańczyk
(c. 1480-1560) (Top Left) was a Polish court jester. He used his job to criticize and warn his contemporaries. The image in this piece is based on a historical depiction where he is the only person at a royal ball who is troubled by the news that the Muscovites have captured Smolensk.
Pagliaccio
(c. 1600) (Top Right) is the Italian word for clowns. It’s also the name of an Italian opera. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance.
Gösta Ekman
(1890-1938) (Bottom Left) was a Swedish actor, director and singer. Ekman was labeled as a workaholic and he found the industry to be broken and stressful. This depiction is of when he acted in the play Han som får örfilarna (He Who Gets Slapped, 1926). Also in 1926, he was introduced to cocaine by two Scandinavians, who told him that cocaine would help him cope with his work schedule better. This began a long-term drug addiction for the actor that slowly deteriorated his health and eventually caused his death.
Emmett Kelly a.k.a. Weary Willie
(1898-1979) (Bottom Right) was an American circus performer. He created the clown character "Weary Willie" as a commentary on the people affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s.