WAM exhibition: An erectile dysfunction, makes sad boys worldwide
Newly Wits PhD graduate uses art to explore the toxicity of fragile masculinity
Nicola Genovese has thrust the issues of fragile masculinity back in the public arena with his exhibition, Sad Boy — which looks at the weight men carry as they are expected to perform being masculine.
Genovese is an Italian/Swiss born artist that recently graduated with his PhD in Fine Arts at Wits. His work is mostly focused on videos, sculptural works, and performances in which he explores issues of masculinity, identity politics and power dynamics in relationships.
The exhibition at the Wits Art Museum, which took place on August 1 was opened with a two-part performance. The first part of it was a reading of an excerpt from his research thesis on the working-class masculinity in the Northern parts of Italy, followed by a poem about the male body and erectile dysfunction. While the performance was taking place, audiences were surrounded by sculptures that attempted to showcase this fragility.
One of the sculptures was placed on Genovese arm, which represented a male’s genital. He had his t-shirt tucked in and his belly sticking out, while flapping the object up and down as he spoke about the function of male genitals.
Genovese told Wits Vuvuzela that the first part of his showcase focused on the representation of the “emo punk attitude from the 90s kids” where being sad and depressed looked cool; and the second one looked at the shame men carry when faced with genitals that are not working as they should.
“We are talking about a part of the body that has to work…This was a way to show the ambivalence that it’s massive but also fragile and soft through the use of the metal sheet material that is metallic but also extremely soft that I used in the arm” Genovese said, when he was talking about what the arm represented in his performance.
Christo Doherty, the supervisor of Genovese for his PhD thesis said that “It’s been quite a trip [working with him] because he is a very challenging artist that is working in the gender, sexuality area… he’s been exploring and critiquing masculinity but as a straight white male”.
BA General student Hope Nesengane who was attending, said, “I appreciate how well rounded it was, the multimedia, the video element and sculptural pieces made the diversity of it interesting, and I thought the performance was also great.”
FEATURED IMAGE: Genovese performing his text piece for the audience.Photo: Aphelele Mbokotho
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Wits Vuvuzela, Golden quartz dazzles in rare exhibition, May 2022
- Wits Vuvuzela, Roedean, Helpmekaar and NSA pupils steal the show at UJ art exhibition, September 2019
- Wits Vuvuzela, Wits hosts toy exhibition embassy , May 2019