Now that political hypocrisy and cynicism have become so flagrant as to seem absurd—what’s the place, or the point, of laughter in our time? Once the refuge of the dominated classes, then a watchword of the avant-garde, laughter now looks like an instrument of repression, pacification, megalomania—in a word, rule.

Can these conditions still yield genuine collective hilarity, more situated and spontaneous forms of vengeful, liberatory joy? Or does the nature of laughter—its potential randomness and amorality—demand that we suspend political questions altogether? Can any riposte be given to our laughing, smashing masters?

This lecture will examine how these questions are posed—and perhaps answered—in the work of the painter Hamishi Farah. Special attention will be paid to Untitled, a new work commissioned by Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung for transmediale 2025.

Untitled (2025) by Hamishi Farah was presented on stage for the duration of Tobi Haslett’s lecture in a manner agreed to by all parties on 01 February 2025. We are pleased to have been able to host this project as part of the festival and stand in support of its aim of raising critical questions of the current German context. More on the project can be read at Triple Canopy, here .