At the opening reception for Will Boys Be Boys?, I'm racking my brain for the last time I was at an art exhibit where people stood in front of video monitors and chanted "oh yeah" with the tense hopefulness normally reserved for World Cup soccer or Game Seven of the World Series.
What we're watching is a literal pissing contest (on video) between two New York artists who work together under the moniker Type A, a reference to the hyper-competitive personality type. Actually, both artists — one of whom, incidentally, has a much larger bladder than the other — are just in the next gallery, amiably answering questions throughout the evening; somehow it doesn't seem at all odd that we're watching them pee as they stand just a few yards away.
"This is our Bodies," says Michelle Turman, director of the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, comparing the museum's latest show to the traveling exhibit that brought controversy and impressive turnout to MOSI last year. Like Bodies, Boys confronts visitors with some potentially uncomfortable encounters — sexualized images of youth, partial to full nudity, violence and blood — all in the name of intellectual inquiry, served with a giant helping of sheer entertainment.
Here, the male bodies in question are not scientific specimens but canvases for cultural symbolism — and bodies there are aplenty in works that flash a wealth of smooth skin, tousled hair, taut stomachs and, yes, even a naked cock.
The physicality of boyhood, from Adonis to acne, provides fodder for many of the works. Larry Clark, perennially poised at the intersection between art and porn, contributes erotic portraits, including a repurposed magazine photo of teen idol Corey Haim. His looping video clip of Today host Bryant Gumbel gazing in adoration at a teen guest provides one of the exhibit's most deliciously perverse moments of pleasure and illustrates an overarching point — that idealized adolescent sexuality can seduce across all kinds of gender, age and orientation lines. On the flip side, Julia Loktev's tightly cropped video showing only the facial contortions of teenage boys as they lift weights evokes a sexual effort so sweaty and determined that it's painful to watch.
Works suggesting that boyhood is a state of mind, rather than biology, are even more intriguing. Photographer and performance artist Nikki S. Lee has infiltrated an astonishing variety of subcultures — from lesbians to senior citizens — spending time with each group, then donning make-up and costumes to blend seamlessly into each tiny society.
Here, she masquerades as a dreadlocked skateboarder, captured in simple snapshots taken by a friend. More disturbing than Lee's gifts as a physical chameleon is the seeming effortlessness with which she attains that holy grail of boyhood — the air of authentic cool — despite being, literally, a total poseur.
A video by Ryan McGinness — whose graphic-kissed skateboard decks hang nearby — tests the limits of where the mind can make the body go. For each minute of an "Hour of Power," McGinness pours himself a shot of Pabst Blue Ribbon and eventually tosses it back, even as the effort becomes clearly unbearable. (Another unusual pleasure of attending the opening was actually drinking along with a $3 Bud.) When he throws up 20 minutes into the video and keeps going — alternately pouring shots and cradling his head in his hands, surrounded by a puddle of puke — it's genuinely inspiring.
Some works suggest that the toys make the boy, from tricked-out sound systems to a massive collection of action figures. My favorite in this category was Luis Gispert's "Extended Beats (Remix)," in which Pimp My Ride collides head on with Design Within Reach. Gispert isolates elements of car and stereo systems, taking a seat or a sub-woofer and embellishing it with fetish details like fur and rhinestones. The polished wood and white leather aesthetic owes something to both hip-hop and Danish Modern design, per Gisbert, with a splash of Hugh Hefner. Elsewhere, Ryan Humphrey's giant toolbox filled with iconic toys largely from the '70s and '80s may have you revisiting childhood playtime.
Will Boys Be Boys?, interestingly, heralds a period of growth and transformation for the museum itself. Feedback from members, Turman says, indicates strong support for the GCMA's mission to showcase Florida artists and Southeastern craft but also that "they do not want to see this 24/7." Taking that message to heart, the museum scheduled a diverse group of exhibits for the upcoming year.
Following Boys, the museum will tone it down a bit with a fall exhibit featuring the dramatic black-and-white landscape photography of Floridian Clyde Butcher. In the spring, young-but-already-famous painter Kehinde Wiley will showcase his portraiture of subjects from contemporary African-American culture in the style of European old masters. (Still under 30, Wiley has already been the subject of a handful of solo shows, and in 2005 VH1 commissioned him to create portraits of its Hip-Hop Honors award winners, from Ice-T to Salt-n-Pepa.) The museum's goal to provide something for everyone, thank goodness, does not translate to trying to please everyone at the same time.
Plans are also afoot to offer an expanded slate of programming to complement exhibits, realizing that when visitors drive to Largo from St. Pete or Tampa, "we need to provide them with an experience," Turman says. For Boys, the experience includes almost-daily screenings of boy-themed films and videos — including Clark's infamous Kids — and periodic talks by scholars and artists. With the exhibit running until July, there's no excuse — except maybe gas prices — not to go get your boy on at the GCMA.
This article appears in May 24-30, 2006.