Phil Collins
he who laughs last laughs longest
2006
Production still
Courtesy the artist
Phil Collins
he who laughs last laughs longest
‘he who laughs last laughs longest will be produced over the summer of 2006 at an event organized to find the person who can laugh continuously for the longest interval for a cash prize. The work, created to mark the 80th anniversary of the birth of television, touches upon ideas concerning audience participation and their status within broadcast media whilst focusing on the struggle to sustain one of the most primitive and deceptive forms of communication.’
Phil Collins, June 2006
Video-maker and photographer Phil Collins’ 35mm film he who laughs last laughs longest continued the artist’s central concern with people, place and community. Collins’ artistic engagement with socially and politically conflicted situations is often mediated through forms of entertainment and performance that belie the gravity of the issues addressed. Such a dynamic is exemplified by his they shoot horses (2004) in which Collins staged an eight–hour disco-marathon with a group of young people in Ramallah.
Phil Collins is an artist currently based in Glasgow. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include ‘they shoot horses’, Tate Britain, London (2006-7), Neue Kunsthalle St Gallen (2006), ‘the return of the real’, sala rekalde, Bilbao (2006) and ‘New Work: Phil Collins’, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2006). Recent group exhibitions include the touring exhibition ‘British Art Show 6’ (2005–6) and Turner Prize 2006, Tate Britain, London.
Phil Collins’s he who laughs last laughs longest is co-commissioned by Frieze Projects/LUX and co-produced with the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus. It is being shown daily during the fair in The Artists Cinema. Schedule and location details are available at the Frieze Art Fair Information Desk. This film will subsequently tour to UK cinemas, shown before main features, through the Independent Cinema Office.
