An introduction to laughter yoga (for chickens) with Barry Sykes
Curator's Diary
In March 2021, writes Jared Schiller, I received an unsolicited proposal from the artist Barry Sykes. 'I keep wondering how the chickens would respond to a Zoom session of my Laughter Yoga', he wrote in an Instagram message. 'I've tried to do it in a wide variety of settings: to kids, pensioners, museum visitors, nurses, naturists, as each responds in their own way. I'd love to add chickens to that list'.
Exhibition for Chickens is all about offering chickens a variety of experiences. The original exhibition included performance-based work but Barry's proposal would be the first to ask the audience to actively participate.
The proposal elicited many questions. Highest on my mind was whether this needed to be a remote experience, or could Barry come and deliver his session in person? If he wanted to gauge their reaction, and indeed give them the best chance of reacting, he would surely do this by being in the field with the chickens and not in front of a screen. I also wanted to know more about Laughter Yoga and Barry's interest in it. And, of course, to learn more about Barry's art.
So we set up a meeting, and I decided that it would be live with an audience, and that we would do as much of the planning and organisation in person:
That was our first development meeting.
It's important that Exhibition for Chickens is a spontaneous and relatively open endeavour. I'm writing this 5 months after Barry's approach, having just been exposed to the work of the Japanese Gutai group and the contemporary artist Ei Arakawa at his performance event 'Mega Please Draw Freely' at Tate Modern. The Gutai group believed in, amongst other things, a sincere pursuit of ones own desire to create. A childlike enthusiasm to make something new. Making what you want to make unhindered by expectation, or an adult's urge to conform.
I see something of this spirit in Exhibition for Chickens. It's something I'm going to ponder more on but for now I think it's in the working things out as we go along, showing this working, and producing things as and when they feel right, and a freer version of my filmmaking.
I will have to ask Barry his thoughts on Gutai in our next meeting, but I bet he's into it.
Meanwhile, I decided to find out more about Laughter Yoga by actually joining in with a session run by its 'inventor' Dr Madan Kataria. Upon joining the Zoom meeting it was like a whole new world opening up, I was suddenly plunged into a community of Laughter Yoga fanatics from all over the world. Arriving early, I was expecting to find the usual group of blank faces waiting for the host to get things started. Instead I was gatecrashing a party with music playing and most of the participants dancing away. To this over-tired, ever so slightly depressive mind it was kind of a bit much. 'Laughter yoga is not comedy' declares the official website, and it's not lying. The host was really genial though, and I was soon joining in with the exercises. I was very self-conscious for some of it so will need to go back.
Barry and I are currently planning a second meeting where we'll do some kind of site visit. You can follow all the action over on my Instagram.
To be continued