MAKE ‘EM LAUGH

Three years ago, multidisciplinary artist Shmuel Taurog changed up his daily routine, and thus transformed his life. He began partaking in what he calls “inspirational activities”: taking long walks, visiting parks, going dancing. Shmuel made an effort to fully immerse himself in these happenings by taking in all of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations they had to offer. 

For years Shmuel felt bombarded with various prescriptions on how to improve his health and well being. He felt this simple act of venturing out into the world and experiencing it fully and joyously was the remedy he’d been searching for. He had just one final longing: instead of setting out on these adventures alone, he wished to do so with likeminded people. 

Enter fellow lifelong New Yorker Margot Werner, a visual artist and art therapist who worked for seven years at LAND Gallery in Brooklyn. As a staff member, Margot supported artists with intellectual disabilities within a particular framework. When she left LAND in 2022, Margot was eager to collaborate with artists in new ways, forging organic relationships and shaking up power dynamics. 

During the first year of the pandemic, Margot and Shmuel became friends. They met up outside at various idyllic New York City destinations — Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn Botanic Garden— to talk about life, love and positive memories, always while doodling or watercoloring. It was like they were communicating in two languages at once: one verbal, one visual. One in the past, one in the present. 

This simple ritual provides the groundwork for Shmuel and Margot’s collaborative experiment: Make ‘em Laugh the fruit of their time as joint artists-in-residence at Summertime. 

Shmuel and Margot selected five artists to lead what they dubbed “positive memory drawing circles” at sites lovingly selected throughout NYC. Each artist chose a spot and shared a happy memory associated with it, as a group of listeners tuned in, intuitively creating their own visual interpretations of the tale alongside its telling. 

Liza Corsillo recalled chasing down a lost car — or was it lost? — at Prospect Park. Diogeneis Costa remembered the Obama portraits at the Brooklyn Museum, his memories morphing into recollections of the home cooked Brazilian food dinners of his childhood. Jimmy Tucker took visitors on a nostalgic shopping trip with his mom and sister through Court Street fish markets, hair salons, and bootleg VHS tape stands. Vivian Smith recounted her 101.5 years on this earth, her boundless love of her grandson Everette, and their trips to the MoMA. As the storytellers spun their tales, listeners sketched along, collaging what they heard with the stimuli perceived in their immediate surroundings. As they co-created and shared space, new happy memories formed. 

Margot and Shmuel then returned to the Summertime studio, channeling the spirit of each drawing circle into a new artwork of their own creation. Margot’s delicate cityscapes contort and crumple as if being shuttled through time and space. Plush patterned hands conjure the energy of collaboration and the power of what is handmade. Shmuel’s maximalist found object sculptures are the embodiment of joy without limits. The extraterrestrial wearables — hats and scepters and items that defy description — capture Shmuel’s intuitive way of dancing through the world and taking everything as inspiration. 

On November 30, Margot and Shmuel will present their creations to the community in an immersive ode to positivity, creativity, togetherness, and fun. It’s more than an exhibition, they want to make clear. It’s interactive. It is movement. It’s alive. 

The project and the happy feelings associated with it remind Shmuel of a memory: “A few weeks before I turned three years old, I went to a cabin in the mountains to relax. As soon as the car was parked, I ran out into the garden. My instinct told me ‘exercise is good’ and I picked up a flower and gave it to my family. That is something that helped me my whole life.”

This residency and exhibition are supported, in part, by a generous grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council.