CHER (Champions of Empty Rooms) is looking for work that utilizes humor or absurdity to broach heavy and sometimes off putting subjects.  This is an open call for submissions.

Please send .jpgs 7” on its longest side at 200 DPI to cherpopups@gmail.com.  No more than 5 images per person.  All media is accepted.  This open call will end on June 15th at 9pm.  Artists will be notified by the second week in July.  The opening will be held at PhilaMOCA on August 2nd.

Show statement:
Humor is a front, misdirection of the sneakiest sort. As tears spring forth from hearty guffaws, our defenses drop. Through these boisterous chinks in our psychic armor, dark and uncomfortable subject matter stealthily enters. Once mouths close and laughter ceases we are left to deal with that which remains (opened cans and worms, worms, worms). Propriety is always up for debate but it cannot be denied that comedy is an indispensable strategy. This practice allows us to acknowledge, process, and ultimately embrace our world, warts and all.

Famine, illness, war, and injustice press in on all sides. Caught in the chasm between environmental collapse and economic catastrophe, it can be quite easy to suffocate in this cavern of despair. Seemingly powerless to change our circumstances, we’ve but a handful of options at our fingertips. We may choose to languish in the dark; hardhearted, reserved, and grim. Or…we can build a fire. It is here we tell stories, we tell jokes. This flickering flame of humor plays upon the dingy surface of reality. In this light our heartaches and fears are bravely faced within a social context, rather than relegated to a dim and solitary realm of ignorance and escapism.  Around this fire we nod, we smile, we understand.