Timothy Hyman : Carnivalesque

Timothy Hyman

Is the carnivalesque a trope that can be reduced to annual street processions, or does it have impact on contemporary art today?

In his talk and in the seminar that followed, Timothy Hyman drew a link between the street processions (a familiar sight in many European countries) and the concept of the carnivalesque. This somehow anarchical trope has influenced artists from medieval times throughout the centuries up to present-day, most noticeably in works by James Ensor, Max Beckmann, Philippe Guston or Paul Mc Carthy. The fact that street processions are celebrated predominantly in mainland Europe and less in the UK, sheds light on the Anglican past in Britain and somehow puts the carnivalesque in opposition to puritan ideology.

The puritan, disciplined idea contrasts profoundly with the carnivalesque and grotesque body. The focus on the ‘bodily lower stratum’, vulgar expressions, scatological elements and deformed bodies inverts Western ideals and positions itself in direct opposition to the classical, well-proportioned body. The inversion of hierarchies, focusing on orifices, defecation and human needs becomes a relevant tool to conflate straight-laced, progress-orientated conceptions of both art and society.

The use of masks, the tumultuous crowds and grotesque bodies go beyond the inversion of hierarchies. Carnivalesque renderings often seem to offer a way to negotiate the relationship with the other, foreign, different, ugly by combining both sides (self/other). Situated exactly on the threshold between excess and abstinence (Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday), Carnival is described as a dialectical in-between state. Masks, dressing up, becoming somebody else, dissolving in the crowd, are all aspects that can be found in many depictions of the carnivalesque. It thus becomes a reflection of this transgression, the inversion of self/other, the ‘mise-en-scène of otherness’. Therefore the carnivalesque, in its inversion of hierarchies and redefinition of self/other division (most evident in Mikhail Bakhtin’s writings) proves to be an important aspect in contemporary art production.