Ii - Exhibition - Tent & WDW

The Wardens is a moving image work by Julius Thissen, at the exhibition ‘Among Other Things, I’ve Taken up Smoking’ in Tent. In the 6:36 minute video two men standing side by side and looking entirely emotionless before they start patting each other on the back. They slap on each other’s backs vigorously and violently, while looking exhausted and painful in their faces.

The two performers appear as white men with short hair, dressed entirely in black with shirts and trousers, deliberately illustrating the typical masculine roles in representations. Depicted clearly in full shot and medium shot, throughout the whole video their gestures, body movements and facial expressions are being shown to the audience.

The Wardens problematizes the typical masculine gesture, in order to pose questions to masculinity in the western context and reveal its harm to individuals. While the exhibition investigates genders and sexualities, this work invites audience to look into the notion of masculinity that always represents itself as neutral, rather as a constructed and performative identity among many other identities.