‘IS THIS A RECLAMATION OF
BRUTISHNESS, MISOGYNY AND
OTHER ‘MANLY' PURSUITS?’
One Ball 50—50 Tank by Jeff Koons
Well hung
Alexander Kennedy wonders if Dada’s Boys are just big girls at heart, and if the new show at the Fruitmarket tells us anything new about masculinity.
t‘s naive to think that the ‘problem‘ of sexual
identity is a contemporary concern. and that the
sexed body as a locus of philosophical statements is somehow a recent invention. That said. there is something particular to the embodiment of contemporary sexed subjectivity. an awareness of absence. that something has been lost. Is it the imagined ‘golden age' of sexuality where ‘men were men‘. etc? Or. is it the loss of difference. of choice. of the possibility of experiencing contradictory desires — the capriciousness of sexuality. the play of identity that has been foreclosed to heterosexual men‘.’ Dar/(1's Buys sets out to consider these questions. with recourse to the sometimes complex. sometimes downright stupid manifestations of these issues in the work of the founding members of Dada. and in the more recent work of a collection of artists from the 70s to the present day.
This fantastically curated show welcomes difference and presents a poetic and rhetorical version of art history. simultaneously making solid formal relationships between works. Contradiction is at the heart of this exhibition.
On the ground floor we are immediately aware that the reservations we might have had about the politics behind this show (that this could be a reclamation of brutishness. the objectit'tc‘ation of women. misogyny and other ‘manly‘ pursuits) are confounded. Duchamp. as his alter ego Rose Sélavy. poses like a modest great aunt. If there is a body to be gazed at it is a man's: if there is an 'original‘ behind the mask to be laughed at. it is the multiple personalities of
Duchamp. Besides this contrived mugshot are others: Duchamp on a wanted poster and as horny. soapy satyr. From there we jump quickly to more contemporary attempts at witty metamorphosis and gender euphoria: Douglas (iordon as ‘Kurt ('obain as Andy Warhol as Myra llindley as Marilyn Monroe' in one diminutive photo and as an overly dolled-up moll. more mutton—as-lamb than gaminc tlehutante. Boys will be girls. l'pstairs. Sarah Lucas sits about like a hot teenage boy in a Brit-pop-era photo shoot: sexier than a young Brett Anderson and more hutch than Jarvis and Damon.
The tight. formal approach to curating is evidenced in what can only be described as 'a load of balls‘. which has one of Jeff Koons‘ big ones lloating in a tank at its centre. next to his poster of the footballer '/.ungul. where footballs decorate the scene. and his own two (tightly held in his football shorts) immediater solicit one‘s ga/e. Flanking Koons are two films: Matthew Barney's quest for balls in ('rt'masrvr 4 and Roderick Buchanan‘s film about footballers exchanging shirts in 'Iiim/u': lu ('licmist'. Get it‘.’ Big ones. small ones. some as big as Barney's head. The work upstairs takes the themes introduced on the ground floor and runs. which is what this show needs: more space. more work. more contradictions. This is the germ for a larger. more explosive show: this is an ongoing project. like masculinity itself.
Dada’s Boys: Play and Identity in Contemporary Art’, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 16 June. 0000
.- - Visual Art *
THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
Dada’s Boys: Identity and Play in Contemporary Art This solidly curated exhibition brings together the work of founding Dadaists. Duchamp. Man Ray and Picabia. and places their work alongside artists from the late 70s to the present day. The show includes Matthew Barney, Sarah Lucas. Jeff Koons and Paul McCarthy. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 16 Jul. See review, opposite.
“is Becky Beasley Beasley's work examines the relationship between sculpture. photography and installation. The work shown in a tenement tlat. plays with the idea of art as ‘interior decoration', and draws on literary references, creating work that moves between the minimal and the memento mori. UBU Gallery Offsite Project, Glasgow, until Wed 5 Jul. See listings for more details and review, page 92.
* All dressed up with nowhere to go A new group exhibition curated by New York gallerist Anke Kempkes. The work on show includes painting, photography, sculpture and video work, all of which explore the tension between inside and out, public and private. who you are and what they see. Sorcha Dal/as, Glasgow, until Sat 24 Jun. See review page 93.
* Chad McCall
These large gouaches turn social situations inside out. creating sometimes humorous but always subtly scathing critiques of how we live our lives. Each image contains a legend that the action portrayed betrays. using manuals and school text books in sweetly subversive ways. Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 13 Aug. See review page 92.
8—22 Jun 200") THE LIST 91