Our first entrance to SPRING/BREAK brought us to the theme of In Excess, and for this year’s Wild Card, we want to toy with the overwhelming imbalance between gendered gazes - there is an overwhelming abundance of discord. Considering that both the male and female gaze encounter varied criticisms, we will argue that in the contemporary artist, the gaze of gender has been replaced by the gaze of imagination. Historically throughout the canon of art, we have encountered men creating idealized representations of the feminine based on desire, morality and class. Representation of objects have been laden with either male qualities to enhance the male notion of self, or objects are affixed with feminine qualities that make them soft and reinforce the female as passive - and enforces the male as aggressive. The female gaze has also presented ideas and notions based on a much more accommodating and accepting ideal, but still some have been left out of that gaze - very much as the early suffragists regaled the Other to the sidelines. Recently, John Paul Brammer discusses in his New York Times review on Manuel Betancourt’s work: The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Popular Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men, some of the contradictions found in the male gaze - from both an accepted point of view, but more closely from a gay man’s struggle balancing societal expectations with his own desire. (As a small side note, one cannot find it but interesting that after the overturning of Roe V Wade, the discussion on the Male Gaze has once again infiltrated discussions and the art world) Further to the above, in another New York Times Letter to the Editor responding to David French’s The Right Is All Wrong About Masculinity stimulated many responses battling out what it means to be considered a ‘real man’, basically the conflict of being ready to die for your country, be stoic and strong, but also being prepared to be able to withstand the objections of extreme policies and ideologies of patriotism, religion and race. Turning the view on the feminine gaze, truthfully there is a movement, on social media and throughout to soften the patriarchal representation and make Her more accessible, but the problem, or disconnect occurs when women turn on women in the most brutal of behaviors. It is one thing for a man to judge a woman, try to control her, define, and sex her to his desire, but when other women aid him, reinforce him and stand fast in his beliefs towards the liberal woman, it can only be seen as both confusing and the ultimate betrayal.
Taking all of the above into consideration, The CAMP room for Freaks of Nature, responds and replaces mainstream gendered gazes with one solely grounded in imagination. Each of the artists will present one or two works presenting identifiable objects but ones seeping with imagination, avoiding the gendered gaze. Beginning as our first ‘freak’ Jac Lahav and his playful and quirky sculptural works will greet the viewer encouraging an entrance into innocence. RJ Calabrese’ works poke fun at notions of masculinity and brings the ideal down to the undesired. Pablo Power known for transferring images, posters and more on his work as he documents society, will create a small polaroid sculpture continuing this conversation. Stefano Ogliari Badessi will bring back his little monsters to SPRING/BREAK - but new and with an environmental focus. Caitlin McCormack through her fiber works plays with some notions of the feminine, but also the peril of femininity. Chiara No through her sculptural bells plays with the imagination and notions of time, as the bell often connotes the passing of time. Rita Valley with her WTF pillows, will enhance the space with a pile of them marking our incredulousness of this modern world where everyday makes someone shake their head in disbelief. Julie Peppito who made her SPRING/BREAK debut will also grace our space with her mixed media pieces, but much smaller drawing the viewer into a new experience. Clara Fialho offers paper macho masks of suggesting the fragility of Other, as anyone can adorn themselves with one - but must be careful as the non white woman still needs to tread with caution as she stands alone and often is not welcomed into the mainstream white middle class women’s movement. Kathryn Knudsen through fiber creates small works, somehow sharing some structural elements of tokens to ward off evil, dresses her works in an abundance of color generating only good vibes. Lastly Michela Martello and Yamilla Diaz Rahi structure ceramics of broken hands and objects becoming symbols showing that we are no longer a united people, gone forever is that 1970’s Coke a Cola ad of a united American holding hands across the expanse of our shores and beyond.
