Embedded in manic laughter is a cry for help, a face perpetually contorted into the laugh-cry emoji. Selected as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year couple of years ago, 😂 was apparently the most used ‘word’ globally. Originally called ‘Face with Tears of Joy’, 😂 has quickly evolved to inhabit deeper complexities, encompassing helplessness, embarrassment, incompetence. Are the tears the result of unhinged laughter; or is laughter a front for bitter tears? HahahAhAHahahahahaHALP!

Humor is specific in its time and space; what makes us laugh reveals a lot about our immediacy, and the world here and now. It also reflects on the evolution of our cultures and endures in its infinite forms: satire, slapstick, irony, parody, memes and so on. Inheriting the nature of humour, Only a Joke Can Save Us is a complex, varied and rebellious account of our current times. 

Bo Choy, FAMEME, Hu Rui, Cyrus Hung, Kensuke Koike, Kieran Leach, Mak Ying Tung 2, Pow Martinez, Yan Xinyue
Co-curated by Eunice Tsang and Tiffany Leung

Gallery address: 3F, Tak On House, 13 Wong Chuk Street, Sham Shui Po