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“Humor has been a guiding principle of all my work, even before this video project – the Hennessey project. Humor, music, and writing, these are my bases. I think Hennessey was just a byproduct of using those tools.” — Jayson Musson

It was recently announced that the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia received a significant grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in support of His History of Art, an interdisciplinary project by contemporary artist Jayson Musson. The project, a new miniseries complete with newly designed sets positioned as installations at the museum, is designed as a two-year residency that will culminate as an exhibition opening in April 2022.

In 2012, Musson sat down with the now-defunct Life+Times magazine – a project of rapper and business, man, Jay-Z – to discuss the importance of humor to his work.

From The Fabric Workshop and Museum:

Investigating the ways in which popular art historical images impact our cultural consciousness, His History of Art will explore the key question: In what ways can humor address inequality in the arts? “With Jayson as an Artist-in-Residence with FWM, I wanted to showcase Philadelphia and the incredible work that happens here,” says FWM Curator Karen Patterson. “I’m excited to work alongside Jayson to learn the ways in which his research acumen and disarming sense of humor can help us uncover truths about inherent inequities in the field of art history.”

“Good humor always moves toward truth,” Musson explains. “This exposure of truth is what causes a joke to resonate with a listener and connect with their often-unspoken experiences and feelings. Jokes uncover, jokes expose, jokes bring into the light things which are oft buried by individuals and a society. Comedy’s propensity to dig up skeletons and parade them in front of an audience with little regard for consequence or moral constraint is one of the main reasons it has been a useful tool in exposing inequality and grand social failings.”