Art Tim Lee

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Although it's tempting to dismiss Vancouver-based artist Tim Lee's use of comedy-as-conceptual-device as lacking in depth or social concern, to mistake his work for a series of pithy punch lines is simply to not get the joke. Fortunately, the artist's Duchampian marksmanship is as well aimed as his investigations of different personae and social contexts are far from superficial. Those who remember Lee's 2001 video The Move, Beastie Boys, 1998 — a hilariously deadpan recitation of the titular song — will relish his new work, created during his 2007 Capp Street Project residency. This time, Lee grapples with Steve Martin's "Let's Get Small" and Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps," testing Martin's theory that "you just can't play a depressing song on the banjo."

– Isaac Amala

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