ALT CAB or Where Did It Go Wrong? explores the alternative comedy scene of the 1980s and early 1990s in London, using archive material from the period, as well as a series of performances and discussions by practitioners from then and now.
The exhibition (12 February - 14 March) is curated by Monika Bobinska and comedy producer Dec Munro.
ALT CAB brings an informal archival record of the beginnings of 'alternative comedy' into the space of the art gallery. The exhibition - containing artefacts, film footage and ephemera - explores the aesthetic, innovativeness and political concerns of a performative live movement which was born out of a reaction to Thatcherism and the comedy mainstream, and which then 'grew up' to itself become the mainstream.
The live programme will highlight the concerns of the early days of alternative comedy, with its emphasis on anti-sexism, anti-racism and anti-homophobia, and the ways in which that agenda was complex and often contradictory, in its delivery and its reception. It will also explore how that agenda has changed and been modified to address the changed conditions of today's Britain.
