The Babylon Gallery in Ely is offering people another chance to “re-enter the absurd world of Mack Mathod Cereal Absurdist” – and entry is free.

Ely Standard: The Babylon Gallery in Ely is offering people another chance to “re-enter the absurd world of Mack Mathod Cereal Absurdist” – and entry is free.The Babylon Gallery in Ely is offering people another chance to “re-enter the absurd world of Mack Mathod Cereal Absurdist” – and entry is free. (Image: Archant)

Using repurposed images and humorous texts to amuse and entertain, it is described as the most unusual exhibition of the year.

He said: “My work is stupid, inane and entertaining... just the antidote for the Brexit blues.

His work, whether performed or constructed, is in the tradition of the surrealists, dadaists, the Theatre of the Absurd and post Russian Revolutionary writers and performers.

“I strive to reintroduce humour and stupidity into an over serious contemporary art format, an aspect which I see as an important generic omission since the sixties.

“My present work is printed on handmade paper and presented in antique frames with printed texts to suggest an absurd curated world that we can only view from a distance of time and sobriety.

“My constructed and performed work has a similarly meaningless perspective. I have been an absurdist all of my life. In the seventies, after leaving Leeds College of Art I worked in absurd performances all over the country.

“I have been a comedy scriptwriter, performer, director, and educator and, over the past ten years have been manipulating ideas through photographic found images.

“I have a strong belief that humour needs to be redefined in its role in Contemporary Art. I am actively, and continually, reassessing the absurd, the meaningless and ridiculousness, once a staple diet of sixties creativity, in an attempt to reintroduce that mindset into twenty first century artforms.”

When Mack Mathod won the best newcomer award at the Peterborough Open Biennial in 2016, judges said: “Mack Mathod’s work presents a humorous way of repurposing objects and materials that have had a previous life.

“They have been brought into the contemporary by re-presenting them in response to current daily life. He is also playing on historical and museum contexts and display by presenting them in such a way as to make them appear truthful remnants of history.

“While performing as serious and factual, this work is imbued with comical wit and absurdity. Its playful grave humour is reflective and pokes fun at the way we take art and art practice so seriously.”

The exhibition returns to the city from Thursday 4 to Sunday 28 April and is open from 12-4pm Tuesday to Sunday.

There will be a launch performance on Wednesday April 3 from 6-8pm. The exhibition is open from 12-4pm Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Monday.

Admission is free but donations were welcome. For more information visit www.babylonarts.org.uk