Riddle of how comedians' photos came to be in a Canadian underpass

British-based comedians have been stunned to learn that their images are being used in a public art project in Canada.

Artist Derek Michael Besant was paid the equivalent of £12,000 of public money to create a piece for an underpass in Calgary, Alberta, and came up with the idea of a series of twenty 6ft by 7ft blurry Polaroid-style black and white images, superimposed with bold text.

The photographs are said to represent the people who used the 4th Street Underpass – but it turns out that most of the images have been taken from the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe brochure.

Sofie Hagen, Ashley Storrie, Hardeep Singh Kholi, Abi Roberts and Markus Birdman are among those comedians whose likenesses have been used.

None of the original photographers nor the comedians were credited, and now Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi has ordered an official investigation into the project.

The artwork was completed in October 2015, soon after the Fringe ended, but the use of the stand-ups' publicity shots has only just been discovered – thanks to an old friend of one of the comedians.

The pal emailed Bisha K Ali to say: 'Hey Bisha! I know this is probably supremely weird but I think I saw a photo of you being used in a public art installation in Calgary…'

She demanded a picture, and he obliged:

That's weird! Pics or it didn't happen, I say. So he sends me this: pic.twitter.com/QSX3tbx2dr

— Bisha K Ali (@bishakali) November 27, 2017

Ali said on Twitter: 'I start looking up the other photos used in the installation. GUESS WHAT? It says they're random photos taken by the artist of people who used the underpass. GUESS. WHAT? I never been there.. AND I CAN NAME SOME OF THE COMEDIANS FEATURED.'

Ali's blurred photo was originally taken by fellow comedian Jayde Adams to promote Ali's Edinburgh show.

And that is not the only one – thanks to the collective power of social media at least 12 of the 20 images have now been identified as being of comedians. Chris Betts, Harriet Kemsley, Damian Clark, Matt Reed, Gary Coleman, Paul Savage and Lesley McAra – a criminal justice researcher who had a show called Hug a Thug at the 2015 Fringe.

Isabelle Adam, of Comedy 4 Kids and a photographer herself, put the images together with those in the Fringe programme to help create this montage:

Adam said: 'Besant has favoured well-lit pictures of artists' whole heads, ignoring double-acts, those accessorising with a microphone or outlandish make-up, and those with an overly busy background.'

Photographer Karla Gowlett, who took the picture of Sofie Hagen used in the piece, said: 'I'm too lazy to get my photos up on Instagram so it's nice to know someone is doing the work for me getting them out there. Although it is such a shame that Sofie's gorgeous face is blurred out! 

'He has chosen such simple shots it would have been very simple to get his own, but we have all cut corners to make a deadline.'

When the project was unveiled, Besant spoke of how he spent time in the underpass observing those who passed through, and that he wanted to directly represent the public.

'It has to do something that acknowledges people in that area,' he told Canada's Metro newspaper at the time. The newspaper said Besant wanted to represent Calgarians who cross the walkway every day.

And the Avenue Calgary website said that the artists 'chose the 20 people at random from the pedestrians he met at the underpass. Though each phrase is pulled from his interviews with those people, they're not direct quotes from the person photographed'

When it announced the CA$20,000 commission, the city of Calgary explained that the piece was 'a series of printed portraits and text representing a cross section of the community.'

Besant has not responded to Chortle's request for comment.

Published: 28 Nov 2017