We Do A Slow March, 2020
15 chromogenic prints, dimensions 13 x 9 cm each
15 chromogenic prints, dimensions 13 x 9 cm each
Compiling a series of video-stills from
television series and popular films broadcasted between 1980-1995 on CyBC’s[1]national television program, We Do A Slow March, points towards images
and their narrative potentialities that originate within—and for—the medium
itself, but also unfold beyond their linear filmic sequence reality. Fifteen
close-up portraits of male actors and performers in their respective iconic roles,
that despite their apparent stillness, instantly activate a familiar visual and
cultural operation on masculinity and its representation as this was
articulated within the Cypriot social fabric.
At
a time where the ideal male and its bodily representation were aptly expressed
as a positive stereotype and a social function, the selected screen personas construct
a didactic lexicon on ‘masculine heroes’. These on-screen articulations of
gender, function as scripted character-performances on masculinity and operate as
symbols (both on-and-off screen) which the actors themselves embody. Repetitive
visual affirmations on masculinity are manifested through assorted storylines
on the same theme(s) of the ‘virtuous, brave and strong male’, and imposed
through the endless reruns of the same shows for years under the monopoly of
the television airwaves by CyBC. The selected portraits and the characters they
represent, are images with immense power in shaping cultural and social
identities: they narrate distinct male historie(s), they construct archetypal
male typologies, and express the dominant cultural stipulations on how to
negotiate gender, social and cultural conditions concerning various aspects of male
identity
[1] Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation is Cyprus public broadcasting service, and up-until 1992 the only television channel on the island
[1] Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation is Cyprus public broadcasting service, and up-until 1992 the only television channel on the island