N(ONE) OF THE BOYS
 

Engaging issues of gender sameness, heteronormativity, homosocial attraction, and self-reflexive masculinity, N(one) of The Boys seeks to craft a poetic, audiovisual narrative of the collegiate fraternal experience. Employing primary source documentary photographs taken in the early 20th century at the University of Virginia, the work explores questions of desire and intimacy within the traditional order of the fraternal system.

Harnessing the power of the collective male gaze, at once steadfast and threatening, intensely masculine and provocatively objectifying, the work flips through fixed individual portraits of fraternity brothers frame by frame. Anchoring their eyes at the center of the monitor, the piece both dominates and ostracizes the viewer, incorporating her/him/they into the masculine discourse and excluding they/her/him from the fraternal masculine order. Ultimately, N(one) of The Boys presents a physical space in which others can symbolically explore my understanding of what it means to be masculine. There, viewers can question the bonds between men, the language that defines those bonds, and the tenuous place of difference within entrenched orders of fraternal sameness.

Gallery: Vera List Center
Year: 2012