Bad Boys
BAD BOYS investigates hysterical masculinity in the aesthetics of extreme masculine drag evidenced in the distinctly irrational behaviors of men and boys, who in fear of acknowledging their own frailties, seek to expunge weakness through accessorizing and violence.
Included in the exhibition is Nothing much happened today (for Eric and Dyan), 2005 - 2009. This cross-stitched work remediates a pixelated image from Columbine High School's cafeteria surveillance camera taken during the April 20, 1999 massacre. This five-year endeavor captures the iconic image representing 1/30 of a second of the event. Referencing the traces left on the magnetic tape of video surveillance the work can be viewed as a shroud or mourning cloth reopening/redressing old wounds. Its process-driven, slow, calculated, conservative physicality is at extreme odds with the messy, disposable, video still made indelible by the media.
Love Letter (white flag), 2010; a series of 39 vintage handkerchiefs embroidered with Eric Harris' journal "The Book of God" further explores the columbine massacre.
Sonata (Nick Berg Beheading,) 2010 is derived from re-mediated video footage of the beheading of Nick Berg performed by members of Al-Qaeda. Intended to terrorize through the power of imagery, the videos themselves have been in a sense 'beheaded' and are stripped of visual content. Instead, they are reinterpreted as sheet music laser engraved on calf hide vellum; a translation or transposition of video image into notation, craft object, and ultimately sound.
Fond (fingerbang) 2010, is a video shot at Dia Beacon, NY depicting the artist violating a Joseph Beuys sculpture in the Dia Foundation's permanent collection. Mason's performance of institutional transgression effeminizes Beuys' felt stacks, and by association, Beuys himself. The video is viewed through a navel high 'glory hole' in the wall, forcing the viewer to assume a vulnerable position, doubly breaking the erectness of the body as well as the social erectness of high art.
Included in the exhibition is Nothing much happened today (for Eric and Dyan), 2005 - 2009. This cross-stitched work remediates a pixelated image from Columbine High School's cafeteria surveillance camera taken during the April 20, 1999 massacre. This five-year endeavor captures the iconic image representing 1/30 of a second of the event. Referencing the traces left on the magnetic tape of video surveillance the work can be viewed as a shroud or mourning cloth reopening/redressing old wounds. Its process-driven, slow, calculated, conservative physicality is at extreme odds with the messy, disposable, video still made indelible by the media.
Love Letter (white flag), 2010; a series of 39 vintage handkerchiefs embroidered with Eric Harris' journal "The Book of God" further explores the columbine massacre.
Sonata (Nick Berg Beheading,) 2010 is derived from re-mediated video footage of the beheading of Nick Berg performed by members of Al-Qaeda. Intended to terrorize through the power of imagery, the videos themselves have been in a sense 'beheaded' and are stripped of visual content. Instead, they are reinterpreted as sheet music laser engraved on calf hide vellum; a translation or transposition of video image into notation, craft object, and ultimately sound.
Fond (fingerbang) 2010, is a video shot at Dia Beacon, NY depicting the artist violating a Joseph Beuys sculpture in the Dia Foundation's permanent collection. Mason's performance of institutional transgression effeminizes Beuys' felt stacks, and by association, Beuys himself. The video is viewed through a navel high 'glory hole' in the wall, forcing the viewer to assume a vulnerable position, doubly breaking the erectness of the body as well as the social erectness of high art.
