The Barbican: Masculinities Exhibition

The Barbican: Masculinities Exhibition

I had the oppurtunity to visit the Masculinites Exhibiton at the Barbican in London (20th Feburary-17th May)

On the way, on a wall of an underpass that sits outside the Barbican, is this artwork. Its an eclectic mix of styles, and it has been protected by a clear plastic cover. At the moment, I'm not aware of who the artist is, but it felt like a fitting prolougue to the trip, and for what was to come.

Once i'd arrived, I ascended to the third floor, paid my way, (Only £15, and there is a student discount aswell!) and started the exhibition. 

The Exhibition covers two levels, and is spilt into six main areas: Disrupting The Archetype; Male Order: Power, Partriarchy and space; Too Close To Home: Family And Fatherhood; Queering Masculinity; Reclaiming The Black Body; Women On Men: Reversing The Male Gaze.

Part One: Disrupting The Archetype

This work, part of a collection of photographs by Catherine Opie called High School Football, which endeoured to explore and subvert the stereotypes of  the classical 'All-American College Boys'

Catherine Opie:Stephen (2009 C-Print)

Left: Robert Mapplethorpe: Arnold Schwarzenegger (1976 Silver Gelatin Print)

Centre: Robert Mapplethorpe: Lisa Lyon (1980 Silver Gelatin Print)

Right: Robert Mapplethorpe: Arnold Schwarzenegger (1976 Silver Gelatin Print)

The next set of photographs from artist Akram Zaatari is part of a series called Bodybuilders, which is comprised of a set reclaimed photogrpahs, blown up much large than their original size, highlighting the weathering and damge to the images, and thus their fragiltty. This is to represent the comparative fragility of "western masculinity" and the "stereotyes that frequently assosciate the Middle Eastern man with expressions of violence and oppression".

Left: Akram Zaatari: Bodybuilders (2011, Prinited from a damaged negatve showing Mahmoud El Dimassy holding Fadl Kobeissy in Saida from 1948)

Centre and Right: Akram Zaatari: Bodybuilders (2011, Prinited from a damaged negatve showing Mahmoud El Dimassy in Saida from 1948)

This next work, and the final pick from the first section is by a candaian artist and bodybuilder known as Cassils, who has photographed his body as he builds muscle density through "an intense bodybuilding regime' to show "both the artifice and hard work that masculinity requires".

Top Left: Cassils: Time Lapse (Front) (2011 Archival pigment print)

Top Right: Cassils: Time Lapse (Right) (2011 Archival pigment print)

Bottom Left: Cassils: Time Lapse (Back) (2011 Archival pigment print)

Bottom Right: Cassils: Time Lapse (Left) (2011 Archival pigment print)

Part 2: Male Order; Power, Partriarchy and space

Piotr Uklański, The Artist has collated cropped images of famous actors playing high ranking Nazi officers. It represents the nazis fascination with the aryan race. It also represents and "critiques the ways in which the media's glorification of power for entertainment has shaped our understanding of the atrocites perpetrated by the nazi regime."

Piotr Uklański: The Nazis (1998/2019 162 Chromogenic, C-Prints and Black-And-White Photographs)

Part 3: Too Close To Home; Family And Fatherhood

Sunil Gupta: "Pretended" Family Relationships (1988/2020 Archival inkjet print on Hahnemuelhe paper)

This set is a response to a law passed in 1988 in the UK that "restricted positive representations of same-sex relationships and specifically prohbitied the promotion of gay 'pretended family relationships'". Sunil Gupta (the Artist) uses collage with images from the news, and with his own images of same-sex couples, addressing the different layers to the fight for equality, showing the life behind the marches and what is presented in the press.

Part 4: Queering Masculinity

Left: Peter Hujar: Orgasmic Man (II) (1969 Vintage silver gelatin print)

Centre: Peter Hujar: Orgasmic Man (III) (1969 Vintage silver gelatin print)

Right: Peter Hujar: Orgasmic Man (1969 Pigmented ink print)

Left: Karlheinz Weinberger: Naked Torso Man In Shorts And Hat (1960 Selenium toned silver gelatin print)

Centre: Karlheinz Weinberger: Nude Dressed In Fur Coat In KHW Studio (1970 Selenium toned silver gelatin print)

Right: Karlheinz Weinberger: Fur Boy With Newspaper In Boot (1962 Selenium toned silver gelatin print)

In Hal Fischers collection, 'Gay Semiotics', he endeavours to represent "the 'signalling devices' and 'visual iconography' he observed in the gay communities in the Castro and Haight-Ashbury districts of San-Francisco". He photographs these archetypes, and labels them, creating a series of photographs that detail the trends of appearance in the subcultures with a blend of his own deadpan humor.

Top Left: Hal Fischer: Street Fashion: Jock (1977/2020 from the series Gay Semiotics Carbon pigment print)
Top Right: Hal Fischer: Signifiers For A Male Response (1977/2020 from the series Gay Semiotics Carbon pigment print)
Bottom Left: Hal Fischer: Street Fashion: Leather (1977/2020 from the series Gay Semiotics Carbon pigment print)
Bottom Right: Hal Fischer: Street Fashion: Uniform(1977/2020 from the series Gay Semiotics Carbon pigment print)

Left: Hal Fischer: Blue Handkerchief, Red Handkerchief (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Right: Hal Fischer: Leather Apparel (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Top Left: Hal Fischer: Archetypal Media Image: Leather (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Top Right: Hal Fischer: Archetypal Media Image: Classical (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Bottom Left: Hal Fischer: Archetypal Media Image: Western (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Bottom Right: Hal Fischer: Archetypal Media Image: Urbane (1977 Pigmented inkject print, printed 2014)

Part 5: Reclaiming The Black Body

On display was the film 'Looking For Langston'by Issac Julien. It used a combination of the music and voiceovers to give the film an almost dream-like quality. This likeness to a dream sequence is only emphasised by the voiceover of Langston, and his apparent ghost as the film portrays black chracters through time.

Isaac Julien, Stars (Looking for Langston Vintage Series), 1989/2017, Kodak Premier print, Diasec mounted on aluminum, 71 × 102 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. (Image from https://bombmagazine.org/articles/isaac-julien-looking-for-langston/ )

Part 6: Women On Men; Reversing The Male Gaze.

This image shows a collection of smaller images that compare the difference in the body language between men and women, exploring the way women tend to take up less space than men, sitting with their legs together, wheras the men tended to sit with their legs apart. The artist highlights the way that society trains us to think and perform as though one sex is stronger than the other, "perpetuating a heirarchical distinction between the sexes in the form of patterns of physical behaviour."

Marianne Wex: Lets take back our space: 'Female' and 'Male' Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures (Leg and Foot Positions) (1977/2018 Archival Inkjet Print)

All imgaes unless stated otherwise were taken by me on the 11th March 2020, any quotes were taken from the statements next to the works on display in the Barbicans Masculiniteis Exhibition circa the 11th of March 2020