What makes people happy?
Apparently, we have no answer yet. But the question continues to generate philosophical, literary, artistic — and increasingly, economic and scientific — dialogue: the market research company Ipsos has an annual world happiness poll; last year, Columbia University put out the first World Happiness Report, presented at the United Nations; and economists are recently giving more credence to the idea that a new index, Gross National Happiness (and not Gross Domestic Product) is a truly meaningful measure of a country’s economic and social success.
We are also inundated with books and self-help guides, like Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project (on Canada’s bestseller list for 100 weeks), which no one can seem to get enough of.
So it’s no surprise that when internationally-renowned Austrian-born, New York-based graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister (who has designed album covers for The Rolling Stones and Talking Heads) decided to put design on hold and tackle a new creative project, he settled on the subject of happiness. The result is The Happy Show, a public art installation that is the culmination of the artist’s 10-year pondering of the subject. The show, on at the Design Exchange, is a fresh, quirky and uplifting exploration of ideas about, and basic rules relating to, happiness.
The show is clearly a reflection of the ways in which Sagmeister himself has chased after the elusive state. Hints of autobiographical reflection inform some of the installations, like “Drugs Are Fun in the Beginning but Become a Drag Later On,” which captures Sagmeister’s real-life challenge in overcoming a cigarette addiction, and his experience with mood-altering drugs.
But The Happy Show is mainly a light-hearted and irreverent take on the age-old happiness issue: the project includes plastic tubes of yellow gumballs, contemporary adages in the artist’s own black marker scribblings on bright yellow walls and a corner that lights up from white to pink each time a viewer smiles. There are also large interactive installations like the “Actually Doing the Things I Set Out to Do Increases My Overall Level of Satisfaction” piece, which requires one to ride a stationary bicycle in order to unveil a neon-lit message across one of the gallery walls.
The simple brilliance of The Happy Show is that it doesn’t make bold claims of knowing, or philosophize on happiness; rather, gumballs and neon glow in hand, it shakes up a subject that has probably started to take itself a bit too seriously.
What: The Happy Show
Where: The Design Exchange, 234 Bay St.
When: On until March 3, 2013
Tickets: Tickets can be purchased online here.
Maria Gergin is a Toronto-based lawyer.