 The
Sideshow of the Absurd
June 29-September 1, 2002
Step right up to witness a multimedia extravaganza by artist
Pamela Joseph. This original sideshow installation fills the Museum's
main floor galleries with large-scale mechanical sculptures of unusual
and powerful women accompanied by humorous drawings, strange booths and
viewer-activated carnival sounds. Joseph exploits our fascination with
carnivals, peep shows and freakish oddities to engage us in an exploration
of contemporary conceptions of femaleness and female power. Three years
in the making, The Sideshow of the Absurd is a fantasy scenario which
simultaneously evokes nostalgia for a lost indigenous American art form
and provokes serious thought about American culture today.
Pamela Joseph received her Bachelor of Arts from Simmons College and the Boston
Museum School in 1963 and went on to study in New York and Italy. She has since
had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., Germany and China. The recipient
of numerous honors, including a 2001 Colorado Council on the Arts Visual Artist
Fellowship Award, the artist and her work have been the subject of articles in
numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, American
Craft, Print Magazine, and Art In America.
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