Informing Context: Critical review
This is an online adaptation of the report written within the Informing Context module as part of my master’s degree in photography, originally published December 2021. Found here in its original form.
Warning! This is a play with genres and perspectives. I invite you to join me in this playful game. Rejection to do so, might lead to confusion, aggravation and disappointment.
Editor’s Introduction
In this special issue of Kuriosakabinettet, we are taking a closer look at Carl-Mikael Björk’s Dudes exhibition. Eight photos, constructed as fictive portraits of sportsmen, vocations, and religious patriarchs from traditionally male coded contexts. Björk joins a postmodern tradition where one recurring theme, according to Tellgren (2021), is to scrutinize the discursivity of photography and to constantly look outside the image to understand what governs interpretation and decoding of it.
We’ve let three of our contributors assess the series from perspectives of performance/performativity, appropriation, and representation as well as photographic kinships.
Were these photographs conceived a few years earlier, they might very well have fit at the Barbican centre (2020) exhibition Masculinities: Liberation through photography. In the section Disrupting the archetype, Björk’s images would have added to the exploration of conventional and sometimes clichéd representations of athletes, soldiers, and bullfighters.
Short of this option, I urge you to catch the exhibition at Galleri 1658 in Landskrona, Sweden May 13-15.
Photography, performance and performativity
Semiotically, and using Roland Barthe’s (1977, 1982) terminology, Carl-Mikael Björk’s photos in the Dudes exhibition can be taken for representing, or indexing, queer masculinities. Mitchell (1995) writes that ”Photographs are commonly thought to combine iconic and indexical representation, standing for visual objects by virtue of both resemblance and cause and effect.” Following Björk’s work over time, it’s evident that the artist adheres to postmodern and poststructuralist inquiry but leans into what is more of a post-humanities perspective on the photographic, artistic research process. As such I find it compelling to apprehend the Dudes series from a perspective of performativity, intra-action, and materiality. Karen Barad (2007) builds on the works of Niels Bohr, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler to present their theory of agential realism.
Agential realism goes beyond performativity theories that focus exclusively on the human/social realm. Agential realism takes into account the fact that the forces at work in the materialization of bodies are not only social and the bodies produced are not all human. (Barad, 2007:225)
Barad (2007:72) explicitly reads Bohr, Foucault, and Butler diffractively through one another. In relation to the photographs in the Dudes series, I find the concept of performativity especially thought-provoking. While Butler (2011:178) describes gender as a result of a performative reiteration of norms, Barad (2007:33, 139, 149) turns their back on the anthropocentric view of the world and writes that gender is the (possible) phenomenon sprung out of intra-action between several human and non-human actors.
Viewing the Dudes series through a lens of performativity and intra-action, there is a tension emerging through this feminist new materialism (Coleman et al., 2019) where on one hand there is most likely an element of performance and a tempting perspective of (gender) performativity, and on the other hand a materialization of different phenomena (gender included) through intra-action. Barad (2003:802) draws a line from Barthes through Butler to themself by writing: ”A performative understanding of discursive practices challenges the representationalist belief in the power of words to represent preexisting things.”
In short; Photographs don’t necessarily represent a given narrative. Rather different phenomena emerge through the intra-action between photographer, viewer, makeup, clothing, camera, norms… and more. We know from Björk’s own writings (Björk 2021a, 2021b) that he is interested in art as research. This leads me to assume that the artistic research process aims to explore that borderland of (theatrical) performance and (gender) performativity.
When […] is dressing-up theatrical and when is it constitutive of gender identity? If all instances of doing gender are treated equally as instances of subjectification […] there is little in this view, analytically, to distinguish between a performance and the performative. (Lloyd, 1999:202)
Lloyd (1999) is commenting on Butler’s reasoning around drag performance as gender parody. Parodying where drag is an act of imitation where there really is no original; an imitation of an imitation. Butler (2006, 2011) themself writes ambiguously about the relation between performance and performativity, but they seem to settle on the idea that the act of drag holds both performance and performative elements.
I interpret Björk’s photographs as a displacement that, in Butler’s (2006:188) words, ”constitutes a fluidity of identities that suggests an openness to resignification and recontextualization” and that these photographs could be seen as ”parodic proliferation [that] deprives hegemonic culture and its critics of the claim to naturalized or essentialist gender identities.”
The product of photography - the Dudes exhibition - could be seen as a political statement, a narrative of gender norms or fluidity, as it materializes with the viewer. The process of photography seems to be one of exploring gender performativity, masculinities, or drag, through the photographic process. Using Barad’s (2007) theory of agential realism both these phenomena might emerge as the result of different agential cuts. Barad’s shift in ontology (Barad, 2007:33) entails a reconceptualization of philosophical core concepts such as matter, agency, intentionality, subjectivity, discursivity, and performativity.
Drawing on the artist’s explicit fascination for non-human agencies, combining Barad’s thoughts on materiality with Donna Haraway’s (2016a) notion that humans are intricately involved with machines and technology to the point that she uses the metaphor of a cyborg, leads me to reflect on how some of the make-up is done digitally in post-processing. Elements of performativity materialize in the digital realm. The performance itself is stretched out over time; some acts are performed in front of the camera, and some acts are performed with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. The phenomena of drag or gender performativity in these photos are dependent on scrambled divisions between natural and artificial as well as human and non-human.
I think Björk smiles with content knowing that the viewing audience is posing questions of intention and subjectification while also letting their own narratives emerge as the result of intra-action with photos, themselves, and any discursive norms carried into the exhibition room.
A blunt appropriation of queer performativity
Carl-Mikael Björk’s Dudes project is one that is not needed, nor asked for.
Claiming to explore, or critique, archetypal masculinities, Björk sets out to create fictional portraits of men from male coded vocations, sports, and religion. It’s a firefighter, an American football player, an imam, and other men from traditionally hetero-masculine contexts.
I don’t doubt Björk’s intentions of being ”one of the good guys”. One taking a stand for equality. One desperately wanting to signal post-modern connotations of masculinity. But in doing so he a) appropriates queer culture, b) oversees the value of authentic representation, and c) kicks in open doors.
The Swedish discrimination act (SFS 2008:567) aims ”to combat discrimination and in other ways promote equal rights and opportunities regardless of sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age”. These seven discrimination grounds could be thought of to also contain norms and power structures in any given society.
Björk is born, raised, and active in Malmö, Sweden. He’s a white, secular Christian without disabilities. He’s a middle-aged, CIS man living in a heterosexual relationship. He represents the norm in every single one of those seven discrimination grounds. That puts him in a privileged position. From this position of privilege he performs, as a guest, on an imaginary photographic, temporarily queer, soapbox.
In Kjerstin Johnson’s (2011) words ”an act of appropriation” where Björk, who does not experience oppression is ”able to ’play’ temporarily, an ’exotic’ other” without facing the daily discrimination of, in this case, HBTQ culture or individuals.
M.J. Mitchell (1995) writes of how representation has been foundational in both aesthetics and semiotics since antiquity. In modern times representation is also a crucial concept in political theory where it’s forming a cornerstone for theories of sovereignty and the individual’s relation to the state. Mitchell means that fiction (in this case staged portraits) can be seen as the intersection of aesthetic and political representation. Where things that ”stand for” other things cross ways with persons who ”act for” other persons.
As little as we would accept white actors playing black characters on film. As counterproductive as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Mrs. Doubtfire are towards trans activism. As damaging is the Dudes series to the idea of queering masculinities.
Judith Butler (2011:76) writes that ”Heterosexuality can augment its hegemony through denaturalization, as when we see denaturalizing parodies that reidealize heterosexual norms without calling them into question”. They continue to describe how drag performance may be used to reidealize hyperbolic heterosexual gender norms. How heterosexual culture produces for itself through movies like Tootsie or Some Like It Hot and by that naturalizes heterosexual privilege and renders itself as the original and norm.
The world of 2022 does not need another privileged CIS man to speak up for perceived minorities. CIS men need to sit down and listen.
It seems Björk is failing to see that contemporary popular culture is full of authentic queer representation in both fiction and art. Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset in Orange is the new black. Mae Martin as their fictional self in Feel Good. Zanele Muholi through their photo documentation of HBTQ culture in South Africa. Adi Ness through his photographs of Israeli soldiers. Orville Peck and Little Nas X are infiltrating country- and hip-hop music. RuPaul’s Dragrace is a mainstream international success and the format is even bought by Swedish publish service television (Farsan-Lee, 2022).
Saying that the Dudes series is knocking down open doors is an understatement.
Björk's photographic genealogy
Let me examine Carl-Mikael Björk’s affinities and kinships within his photographic genealogy. I’ll put the Dudes exhibition upfront but also consider older work such as the Innate Structures (Björk, 2019-2021) series to be able to draw longer lines.
From a bird’s eye perspective, one can recognize a staged or directorial approach taking shape as conceptual and research-driven. There’s inquiry into the existential and performative as he puts himself both behind and in front of the camera. Visually there’s a highly stylized aesthetic where post-production is integral to the artistic process. Theoretically, he grounds his work in the post-humanities and new feminist materialism through questions around the dissolution of dichotomies such as subject/object, nature/culture, and knower/the known and relies on scholars such as Karen Barad, Judith Butler, and Donna Haraway.
These are themes, methods, and research interests seen with artists such as Cindy Sherman, Florá Borsi, Brooke DiDonato, Annika Elisabeth von Hauswolff, Elina Brotherus, Amalia Ulman, Jill Greenberg, Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, and Saga Wendotte. In the Dudes series, it seems the DNA of performance/performativity, gender issues and subjectivity is notably prominent. As such the heritage to Cindy Sherman, Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff and Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin emerge as especially important and significant.
Cindy Sherman’s work over time has moved over different genres and intertextualities (Moorhouse, 2019). Cinema in Untitled Films Stills, pornography in Centerfolds and Sex Pictures, fairytales in Fairy Tales, fashion in Fashion, Balenciaga, the Chanel series, and Harper’s Bazaar. Whether her work has been personal or commissioned she has continuously worked with herself both behind and in front of the camera. As such she challenges the notion of subjectivity.
Jones (1997:34) describes the photographs by Sherman as situated and embedded in a rich context of work (much of it feminist) and as such addressing the ontology of the subject and the politics of its identifications through the enactment of Sherman’s own body. Cruz (1997:7) locates Sherman’s ”division of herself into many different parts” in a postmodern tradition. Even though Sherman has not pursued an academic career, her work, like Björk’s, resides in a postmodern, feminist tradition where she emerges herself as both subject and object in the artistic process.
Like Sherman, Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff is associated with The Pictures Generation (Tellgren, 2021) - a group of artists where postmodern art became subject to strong theoretical and philosophical discussions, inspired by French poststructuralism. Tellgren describes Hausswolff’s work and method as directorial where she leads the viewer in and out of a staged photographic world. In the series Tillbaka till naturen (Back to nature) from 1993, Hausswolff stages crime scenes containing naked bodies in various types of landscapes. Although Björk has never spoken of this precise intent, he uses a similar aesthetic - one with connotations to Scandinavian Noir - in for example the Innate Structures series. This intertextuality with other cultural genres, shared with Sherman, is also apparent in how the Dudes portraits, use lighting and skin retouching in a way foremost associated with fashion photography.
One of Hausswolff’s more recent works - The Body of Anthroposcene (2020) - refers to the proposed geological epoch ”age of man”. The portrait of a worn, loved teddy bear and the title imply a transitional object for humanity to bear with the uncertain future of climate threat, disease, and political restraints according to Tellgren (2021). This is an indication that Björk and Hausswolff share academic interests. Donna Haraway (2016b) proposes to name the current geological age Cthuluscene rather than Anthropocene as a means to signify something less anthropo- and androcentric while still admitting to humanity’s entanglement with the current multispecies environmental crisis. Björk builds on a studious tradition of the same ancestral lineage as Hausswolff.
Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin is most known for her Ecco Homo exhibition from 1998. The twelve photographs are sprung out of biblical quotes and situated in a contemporary, late 20th century, context. Ohlson Wallin staged the scenes using queer models and environments with the intent of building a narrative showing Jesus as one caring for and carrying, the hardships of the HBTQ community while also showing the unconditional all-encompassing love of God. Gabriella Ahlström (1999) tells the story of pre-Millenium Sweden where Ohlson Wallin’s photographs caused a commotion leading all the way to pope Johannes Paulus II canceling an audience at the Vatican by Swedish, then archbishop, KG Hammar.
Björk is putting masculinity under the loupe rather than religion but uses religious patriarchs from the Abrahamic religions as a way of researching hetero masculinity. Ohlson Wallin’s photos and the debate that followed them for years have most likely paved the way and contributed to a more tolerant debate in Sweden. It’s not likely that Björk’s intersection of queerness and religion will provoke in the same manner. But Ohlson Wallin (Sveriges radio, 2015) herself makes a point that there are still countries where the exhibition cannot be shown.
Interpretation is culturally contextual and it’s probably of utter importance that the photos in the Dudes series be shown as a collection to make sure the theme of (queer) masculinities is the one surfacing rather than, for example, religious motifs.
References
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