Yoshua Okón

Canned Laughter 2009 Video Americas

Canned Laughter was Okón’s response to an invitation from Ciudad Juárez that asked artists to create works based on their experience in the city. Okón focuses on Ciudad Juárez as a site for many “maquiladoras”—factories— and on its role...

Yoshua Okón’s video installations are built on improvisational narratives created by the artist and his collaborators—performers willing to participate in a game of social chance that may easily spiral out of control. These works provoke viewers to consider questions of social conduct and personal behavior within the context of the authoritative nation-state. Okón places pressure on viewers to question their own attitudes towards power, ethics, and prejudice vis-á-vis class, status, and marginality.