Eliana Willis

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    in Street Art

    “Under the Skin” art by David de la Mano in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium

    David de la Mano was born in Salamanca in 1975, where he graduated in Fine Arts before focussing on Public Art for his PhD at the University of Valencia. From 1993 onward, De La Mano has worked extensively in urban public space, and developed his trademark style during numerous international projects. Relying predominantly on harsh contrasts of black and white, his reductive and increasingly emblematic paintings centre around narrative and symbolic figuration. David de la Mano is a contemporary artist known for his meticulous brushwork, his knack for large scale, almost systematic use of black and white, and his minimalist human silhouettes. With his original training in sculpture, he has focused his interest on public art, to which he has naturally and immediately integrated urban art, becoming one of the most important artists in this discipline.His work is made up of characters taken from great poetry that do not leave anyone indifferent. Through each piece, he works to transcribe his vision of the world around him, in the most personal and symbolic way possible. Between shadow and light, playing with shapes, contours and contrasts, David de la Mano gives birth to a world of perfect balance, where human beings and nature, always intrinsically linked, merge and then stand out, in perpetual motion. In addition, it stands out for its exploration of new spaces, supports and materials such as open or invisible spaces, permanent and ephemeral supports, and diverse materials such as urban furniture, or elements of nature.The Spanish artist with a very unique universe has nothing more to demonstrate of his virtuosity, and each of his frescoes around the world confirms it. For Mehdi Ben Cheikh, director of Galerie Itinerrance, “David de la Mano’s work is as relevant on the street as it is in galleries, and it retains all its power from one place to another”. The artist has developed numerous projects in Spain, Norway, Italy, Taiwan, the United States, Poland, England, France, Finland, Tunisia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Portugal, Holland, Germany, etc … and exhibits his works in private homes or in art galleries around the world. David de la Mano’s painting focuses primarily on the importance of social ties, primarily through the representation of human figures evolving in groups, often facing an obstacle or threat. Take advantage of the evocative power of silhouettes to stimulate the imagination of your viewers.The project “Under the Skin” was finished painting and mounting on December 5 on the third floor of the European Parliament in Brussels, created with MDF and assembled from different parts that generate scars in each of its limits.The work shows a growing sequence of confrontation and I accompany its presence with this poem by Miguel Hernández:“…For freedom I detach myself with bulletsof those who have rolled his statue through the mud.And I break free from my feet, from my arms,of my house, of everything.Because where some empty sockets dawn,she will put two stones of future lookand she will make new arms and new legs growin the cut meat.They will sprout winged sap without autumnrelics of my body that I lose in each wound.Because I am like the felled tree, what a sprout:because I still have life.”“Man Lurks” 1937-1939Miguel HernandezTake a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Exhibitions

    An Artist Has Transformed an Abandoned Las Vegas Gas Station Into a Neon Oasis in the Desert

    Revelers escaping regular life in Las Vegas still can’t fill their tank at the abandoned gas station on Fremont Street, but its sight alone will transport them. Digital artist Abigail Dougherty, better known by her art name Neon Saltwater, recently re-envisioned the 1930s relic, traveling from Seattle to Sin City this September to complete her ten-day install just in time for the city’s annual Life Is Beautiful Festival.
    The revamp came at the request of local creative firm JustKids, which has handled the festival’s art curation since 2013. “I have always seen this structure abandoned,” JustKids director Charlotte Dutoit told Artnet News. “Previously it was a gas station, then a repair shop, and even a taco drive-through.”
    Now, it’s a technicolor portal to simpler times titled Mystery Cruise 1990, in reference to Neon Saltwater’s birth year and “a feeling of surrendering and trusting the beautiful unplanned experiences that are around the corner,” the artist told JustKids. Authentic neon gleams from the overhang that once shielded gas pumps. Dougherty’s stage name crowns a single column painted atop the multicolored gradient that wraps the building proper.
    A digital work by Neon Saltwater. Courtesy of JustKids.
    The structure’s actual owner wasn’t involved, which meant the artist couldn’t set up a psychedelic minimart inside. Instead, magenta lights at once sensual and ominous illuminate the silhouettes of tropical plants against appropriately fogged windows.
    If you’re still curious what’s inside, look no further than Neon Saltwater’s digital oeuvre. The artist, who’s also created IRL pop-ups for Barneys and hairclips for cult company Chunks, discovered 3D modeling while studying interior design. “I was too much of a designer to be a traditional artist and too much of an artist to be a traditional interior designer,” she told JustKids. “I always loved rooms and would rearrange my furniture as a kid by myself.”
    Thus, most know Neon Saltwater for her digital scenes of ATM machines, malls, and offices rendered in neon tones—and entirely bereft of people. “The energy that exists in spaces feels spiritual to me and is my biggest muse,” she has remarked. Mystery Cruise 1990 marks her first time working with real neon.
    Neon Saltwater, Mystery Cruise 1990. Courtesy of JustKids.
    “In an era where many artists go from the physical to the digital space, we thought it would be interesting to actually export Neon Saltwater’s cyber wonders into a non-virtual art experience,” Dutoit said in a statement.
    “I see Mystery Cruise 1990 as a nostalgic reinterpretation by the artist of the vintage neon pieces and tourist extravaganzas still visible in the old Vegas, but with new energy,” she told Artnet News. “I hope this artwork will spark curiosity and slow down the passerby, inviting them to escape for a moment in a weird glowing time travel.”
    The portal is on view indefinitely. Don’t miss it the next time you’re on the lam from reality.
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    in Exhibitions

    The Career of Willy Guhl, Creator of the Iconic ‘Shell Seat,’ Gets Another Look With an Exhibition in Zürich

    Famous for concepts like Shell Seat and Loop Rocking Chair, among other furnishings, luminaires, and accessories, the late Willy Guhl was a strong proponent of simplicity—what for many is a hallmark of Swiss design. The prolific talent was known for saying design must “achieve the most with the minimum effort.”
    And yet the task of perfecting a unified shape that is as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional, or engineering the armature of a chair so that it uses as few connections as possible, is no small feat. Works like Flower Box (1954) or his circulatory bathtub design of 1956 are emblematic of this enduring philosophy. The comprehensive “Willy Guhl — Thinking with Your Hands” show currently on view at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich seeks to uncover what made this 20th-century master tick. 
    Willy Guhl’s Circulatory Bathtub compared with conventional bathtubs (1956). Illustration: Willy Bärtschi, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
    Possessing an appreciation for rationalism, as well as an inherent understanding of people’s needs, Guhl (1915-2004) was a pioneer of ergonomics, accessibility, and durability. The designer was an early proponent of hands-on learning and experimentation. The idea that to truly comprehend a problem, or gain implicit skills, one has to physically engage with the material and form of a potential solution, and not rely on a drawing board. As an instructor at the Zürich School of Art and Craft, Guhl required his students to make physical models and work directly with craftspeople, an approach that has again become a virtue in the industry, and perhaps its saving grace.
    The designer was one of the first to develop flat-pack furniture during and soon after World War II. These affordable, easily transportable designs were instrumental in helping to rebuild war-torn Europe, especially when materials were scarce. Throughout the 20th century, Guhl adapted to changing movements and rapidly advancing technologies yet always held true to his fundamentals. 
    Willy Guhl, Garden Chair (1954). Photo: U. Romito and I. Šuta, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
    The exhibition—on view from December 19, 2022, through March 28, 2023—delves deep into extensive archival research conducted by the Swiss National Science Foundation, along with a slew of original designs, drawings, maquettes, and photographs from Guhl’s estate. Part of the showcase, a 1985 film includes testimonials from former students—such as Robert Haussmann, Carmen Greutmann, and Alois Rasser—who went on to establish their own successful practices. Immersive displays conceived by design students from the University of Art and Design in Lausanne provide further insight into his creative process. Visitors can even experience Guhl’s iconic Shell Seat for themselves.
    Willy Guhl on a Bench Chair (ca. 1960). Photo: Bill W. Guhl, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
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    Furniture Works by Jorge Zalszupin, Master of Brazilian Modern Architecture, Go on View at Sean Kelly Los Angeles

    The current exhibition “Zalszupin 100” at Sean Kelly Gallery in Los Angeles celebrates the furniture works of late Polish-Brazilian designer Jorge Zalszupin on what would have been his centenary on earth. A pioneer of Brazilian modernism, Zalszupin died in 2020, two years before turning 100.
    Many of Zalszupin’s pieces on display have been procured from private collections. Over the last two years, the gallery painstakingly sourced the custom furniture he made for offices and homes across Brazil between the late 1950s and early ’70s. Some pieces belonged to Zalszupin’s loved ones, like the Ina armchair, which he made for (and named after) his sister. 
    Zalszupin worked as both a furniture designer and an architect, ran one of the largest furniture factories in Brazil, and in his later years explored painting. His oeuvre is connected by his use of sensuous lines, a modernist sensibility, and an affinity for working with nontraditional materials and woods native to Brazil. His work contains references to both global design trends and his own experiences, such as Tea Trolley, a bar cart inspired by the baby strollers he saw growing up in Poland. 
    Jorge Zalszupin, Tea Trolley (ca. 1960s). Brazilian jacaranda, rosewood, metal. Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.
    Jorge Zalszupin was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1922. In 1949, he made his way to Brazil, where he fell in love with the landscape and the architecture, and lived the rest of his life, becoming one of the definitive designers of Brazilian modernism.
    His foray into furniture design began soon after he launched his architecture practice in Brazil in 1951. Clients began requesting pieces to match the aesthetic of their buildings and Zalszupin was ready to meet their demand. In 1959, he created his first work of furniture—Poltrona Dinamarquesa, or Danish Chair. The seat’s curved wood frame and modern Scandinavian sensibility set the tone for Zalszupin’s prolific career. That same year he founded the L’Atelier, a carpentry firm that grew into one of Brazil’s largest furniture manufacturers.
    Installation view, “Zalszupin 100.” Photo: Brica Wilcox, courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.
    Zalszupin thought creatively about materials and techniques. Early on he developed a signature patchwork rosewood pattern that allowed him to use leftovers from other productions. He would cover the surface of a piece of furniture with rectangular scraps of rosewood in various shades and patterns.
    While Zalszupin is known for his use of native Brazilian woods like jacaranda, rosewood, and ironwood, he also researched and experimented with new machinery and technologies throughout his career, including his plastic laminate series. His innovative use of materials paved the way for the modernism movement that characterized Brazilian design in the decades to come.
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    in Exhibitions

    A Second Group of Ukrainian Artworks Have Been Rescued From the War-Torn Country and Put on View in Switzerland

    More artworks recently rescued from war-torn Ukraine are going on public view—this time in Switzerland in two exhibitions being staged concurrently. The shows, which feature works from Kyiv National Art Gallery, serve both to introduce the country’s art and cultural heritage to a different audience and act as a temporary shelter to protect the works from being destroyed or stolen as the war rages on.
    “Born in Ukraine,” which opened at the Kunstmuseum Basel on Tuesday and runs through April 30, includes 49 masterpieces made by 31 Ukrainian artists between the 18th and 20th centuries. While “From Dusk to Dawn” at the Musée Rath in Geneva, features 50 works selected for their nocturnal themes. Organized by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, the show is due to run through April 23.
    The opening of these exhibitions follows a recent rescue mission in which 51 Ukrainian avant-garde artworks from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Museum of Theater, Music, and Cinema of Ukraine were transported out of the country in a secret convoy on November 15—just hours before the bombing of Kyiv. Following their narrow escape, the works made their way to Spain, where they are now on show at Madrid’s Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in the exhibition, “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–30.”
    In the case of the Kyiv National Art Gallery, the plan to move the masterpieces out of Ukraine began during the first months of the war, according to the Kyiv museum’s director, Iurii Vakulenko. Staff began contacting colleagues in Switzerland after the museum’s building was damaged during a rocket attack on central Kyiv.
    It took several months to identify suitable museum partners, negotiate the details, and organize the journey. “In November 2022, the paintings were transported in a secret operation using special transport vehicles with a reinforced convoy to the border with the E.U., and then to Switzerland,” Vakulenko told Artnet News.
    Constant shelling of the country’s infrastructure and potential blackouts meant the team faced the risk of delayed evacuations should the border crossing control system shut down, he said. “For two days, the paintings traveled through one of the most dangerous parts of Ukraine,” he added.
    “We were very worried about the safety of the collection [during] transportation because there was constant shelling. Now, of course, we’re happy that part of the collection is currently safe and has found its temporary home here in Switzerland,” Vakulenko said.
    The paintings arrived in Basel on November 25, according to the  Kunstmuseum Basel, and will remain in the museum until the show ends, and possibly in the institution’s storage after that. The details, however, have not been finalized.
    As of November 7, more than 70,000 Ukrainians have fled to Switzerland and applied for refugee status, according to Swiss authorities.
    Here are a few highlights from the exhibitions.
    “Born in Ukraine,” at the Kunstmuseum Basel, until 30 April 2023
    Mykola Kuznetsov, Gemüse (1888). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Zinayida Serebryakova, Selbstbildnis (1923–24). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.

    Lev Lagorio, Seelanschaft (1886). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Archip Kuindschi, Der Abend (1885–90). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.
    Illia Repin, Ukrainisches Haus (1880). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.
    Illia Repin, Studie für Golgotha (1896). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Illia Repin’s Junge Frauen spazieren inmitten einer Kuhherde (1896), left, and Bildnis des Dichters Serhij Horodetsky mit seiner Frau Hanna Horodestka, geb. Kozelska (1914), right. Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)

    “From Dusk to Dawn” at Musée Rath, organized by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva, until April 23, 2023

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    in Exhibitions

    British Artist Es Devlin’s Latest Kinetic Sculpture Honors New York as the Most Linguistically Diverse City on Earth

    A kinetic sculpture of 700 illuminated cords unveiled yesterday before the fountain at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, courtesy of British artist Es Devlin. Moët & Chandon commissioned her rotating, immersive spectacle in partnership with the Endangered Language Alliance as part of the champagne house’s global holiday celebrations, taking over 20 cities worldwide.
    “We were looking for an artist who is known for creating extraordinary, immersive spaces and shares the values of Moët & Chandon,” the champagne house told Artnet News of their selection process. “We were, of course, familiar with British contemporary artist Es Devlin and her spectacular works from around the world, like the London Olympics and stage design for prestigious fashion houses and iconic performers.”
    Titled Your Voices, Es Devlin‘s installation honors New York as the planet’s most linguistically diverse city. It will host several multilingual choral groups while on view through December 18. Each of the work’s 700 industrial ratchet straps represents one of over 700 languages actively spoken on New York’s streets, from Algerian Arabic and Ashanti to Zarma and Zulu. The Endangered Language Alliance has mapped them all.
    Aerial view of Your Voices.
    Strung across intersecting vertical and horizontal steel armatures, those metaphorical language straps form a mesmerizing, interconnected nautilus, affirming that disparate tongues still share commonalities. They all coexist in the Big Apple, for instance.
    “In addition to individual lighting units there are rows of Neoflex,” Lincoln Center’s Jenni Klauder told Artnet News of the glowing installation. Between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m. every day, visitors can enter the work free of charge, letting its pulsating light wash over them along with a soundscape by contemporary composers Polyphonia, which translates passages from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel Howards End into numerous languages.
    Four choral groups will sing in languages other than English within Your Voices too, scheduled for seven total performances at 6 p.m. on weekend nights during its run. Devlin and Lincoln Center hand-chose each group.
    Choral groups rehearsing in Your Voices.
    Devlin first visited New York City 25 years ago. “I specifically remember the crescendo of energy that I experienced as I walked across Brooklyn Bridge onto the island of Manhattan,” she told Artnet News. “I’d grown up with an idea of New York as something finished and complete as I’d seen it on TV. It was only as I first walked its streets that I experienced New York as a constant work in progress, always threading new layers of language, steel, light, cement and brick into its ever unfinished text.”
    Your Voices arrives on the heels of Come Home Again, Devlin’s 16-meter choral sculpture outside the Tate Modern, which drew over 7,000 viewers per day while on view, and hosting musical performances, in London last month.
    Devlin’s latest sits atop a motor-powered pedestal that rotates all four cardinal directions. “With opinions and points of view becoming evermore polarized, especially through digital reverberations, I aimed to make a work that gathers community choral groups from all over New York City at the cultural heart of the city,” she continued, “to allow visitors to step inside the work, to experience the layers of languages and perspectives from within a revolving series of tensioned lines that splice their viewpoint as it turns.”
    Check out a free performance while Your Voices is on view. Dates below.
    December 6: Cardinal Hayes Singers, The Jalopy Chorus, and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus (CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER)
    December 9: Cardinal Hayes Singers, The Jalopy Chorus, and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus
    December 10: Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, Ukrainian Village Voices, and the Cardinal Hayes Singers
    December 11: Cardinal Hayes Singers, Our Chorus NYC, and the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir
    December 16: Ukrainian Village Voices, Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir, and Our Chorus NYC
    December 17: Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir, The Jalopy Chorus, and Our Chorus NYC
    December 18: Ukrainian Village Voices, Our Chorus NYC, and the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir
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    in Exhibitions

    A New $4.5 Million Public Art Initiative Aims to Create ‘More Inclusive and Equitable’ Monuments. The First Selection Is Coming to the National Mall

    There’s always a hint of unintended irony in the name of the National Mall. America’s great green space in the center of Washington, D.C., is not, in fact, a place where America’s favorite pastime—shopping—transpires. Rather, it is a space for monument and protest. 
    In this vein, today at 10am during a live-streamed event, details will be revealed for the new public art initiative “Beyond Granite,” a series of artist prototypes for installations that will be unveiled throughout 2023, centered on the National Mall. The series aims to serve as an experiment in how public art can transform the National Mall into “a more inclusive, equitable, and representative process for commemoration,” according to the organizers. 
    Titled “Pulling Together,” the first show, curated by Monument Lab’s Paul Farber and Salamishah Tillet, features artists including vanessa german, Derrick Adams, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Tiffany Chung, Wendy Red Star, and Ashon Crawley. The selected cohort are all “contemporary artists who think about American history, engage at scale in public art projects and represent the diversity and breadth of our country since its inception,” Tillet said.  
    An artist visit to the National Mall with Salamishah Tillet, co-curator of “Pulling Together,” Paul Ramirez Jonas, Vanessa German, Ashon Crawley, and Paul Farber, co-curator and director of Monument Lab. Photo: courtesy of A.J. Mitchell, 2022.
    The final works won’t be revealed until next fall, and the specifics of each individual project are also being kept under wraps, but according to the curators, the show took its overall inspiration from a stirring 1939 performance by the Black opera singer Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall’s western end, after she was barred from singing in Constitution Hall. This in turn spurred the Civil Rights activist Mary Mcleod Bethune to write that the public concert “told a story of hope for tomorrow–a story of triumph–a story of pulling together, a story of splendor and real democracy.” 
    Perhaps for obvious reasons, the Lincoln Memorial steps have become a symbolic space in American history, hosting other memorable events, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and the AIDS Memorial Quilt project.  “We wanted to pull on those histories.”  Tillet said. “What are the ways in which people have been able to gather on the Mall in a form of dissent and democracy?”
    Artists Derrick Adams and Tiffany Chung visiting the D.C. War Memorial on the National Mall, Washington D.C., ahead of their participating in “Pulling Together.” Photo: courtesy of A.J. Mitchell, 2022.
    Funded by a $4.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Trust for the National Mall, the National Capital Planning Commission and the National Park Service, the project is “the result of federal and local agencies who are invested and compelled in how the past/present/future of our monuments live together, and see art at the core of that,” Farber said. He added that “part of the mission is to have a coalition effort to imagine art as a way forward.” 
    “To do a public art project of this scale and magnitude, with sensitivity, really encourages us to think about how we can be together as a people again,” Tillet said. “It feels like often there isn’t a lot to be optimistic about. I think when people come together and see themselves in monuments and understand other histories and people they hadn’t before, with compassion and a sense of community, with this creative backdrop, it’s really inspiring. At least for me. I hope it inspires all of us to see each other as a citizenry through these gatherings.” 
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    in Exhibitions

    The Fragile Male Ego Is Explored in a New London Show Confronting Sexual Dysfunction, Hair Loss, and Body Image

    Toxic masculinity, bro culture, and incel communities have all undergone rigorous critique in recent years. It’s unusual, however, to find the subjects confronted in such a personal way as in British artist Guy J. Oliver’s current exhibition, “We Put the Unction Into Erectile Dysfunction”, at London’s Brooke Benington gallery until January 14, 2023. New Video work, sculptures, and watercolors offer a nuanced voice, tackling masculinity’s unspoken vulnerabilities and dangerous release valves. 
    “I have always put myself in the middle of my work,” said Oliver in an interview with Artnet News. “It is an examination of how I am posited within the context of a wider culture. Ideas of masculinity have been in my work since I first used WWF wrestling as a subject years ago, which I was completely obsessed with as a child.”
    We Put The Unction In Erectile Dysfunction from Guy J. Oliver’s exhibition at London’s Brooke Benington gallery. Image courtesy of the artist and Brooke Benington.
    A graduate of the Royal College of Arts, Oliver is one of the most exciting names in Margate’s art scene. He co-runs the emerging artist space Quench (which is currently showing James Metsoja and a group exhibition exploring thirst), with fellow artist Lindsey Mendick. In 2020, Oliver won the Jerwood/FVU award, which led to the commission of the piece, You Know Nothing of My Work. 
    Both witty and alarming, the exhibition combines YouTube videos (including one featuring a man explaining how to breathe into your balls so as not to speak in a “castrated fashion”), with personal monologues about erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and body image. During particularly sensitive moments, Oliver is disguised as Mr. Soft—the mascot of British confectioner Trebor’s popular Soft Mints. The mood switches in seconds from self-pity to humor and the violent ends of masculinity: war. 
    “This work has come out of actual experiences over a large chunk of my younger life,” said Oliver. “It seemed to be an ideal way of talking about masculinity, particularly embarrassment, shame, vulnerability, and on the flipside—anger and aggression. I have never felt so nervous and uncomfortable showing work in my life. I’m addressing things that I’ve spent a long time trying to hide but hope that tension will make it meaningful.”
    The work explores how men speak to one another. The YouTube videos often take a “tough love” approach, but there’s also a sense of everything that is not said. In one scene, the artist describes a young man holding up a ticker tape while Oliver was DJing. The tape stated that his music choices were making the man soft. Was the man trying to communicate something of his own erectile concerns, wonders the artist, while hiding behind this insult?
    “In my own versions of the bro videos, I start being quite abusive to the viewer, but end up apologizing and saying they should be treated like a prince,” said Oliver. “It’s a bit like PUA [pickup artist] strategies of negging women to get their attention. Often bro videos talk about being vulnerable to ultimately be strong. I came across them while looking for help some years ago. I followed Farhan Khawaja [a.k.a. Doc Testerone] even though I found him repellent in many ways. His narrative is that he was a total loser, Ph.D. nerd, and had chronic erectile dysfunction until he went into the science of testosterone and turned himself into a love god. It is a seductive narrative that offers practical solutions, comparable to other self-help routes. But it’s a short algorithm away from more sinister things. It’s linked to PUAs, [clinical psychologist] Jordan Peterson, and Alt-right politics.”
    The poetic use of language and musical beats accompany the video. Oliver plays with popular lyrics from the Pet Shop Boys, including “What have I done to deserve this,” and weaves references to performance artist Laurie Anderson’s iconic 1981 song O Superman throughout. 
    “O Superman has a distinct critique of masculinity,” he said. “Laurie Anderson is quite androgynous yet feminine, and her fist gesture that I have referenced is provocative and funny. There are references to American military power in the song, and it felt right to include [former U.S. president Donald] Trump in the video as a symbol of where you end up if you take the male ego and entitlement to the limit. ‘What have I done to deserve this?’, is meant ironically, like the original, to address the unironic self-pity I have felt in the past. I want to talk about self-pity as a destructive force that can lead to extreme behavior if allowed to fester.”
    A detail of Hey It’s Fine (2022) from Guy J. Oliver’s exhibition, “We Put the Unction Into Erectile Dysfunction”, at London’s Brooke Benington. Image courtesy of the artist and Brooke Benington.
    The combination of pop culture references and personal narratives is a recurring theme for Oliver. The Year Everyone Died is a 2021 video essay that discusses the spate of celebrity deaths in 2016, including the deaths of David Bowie and Carrie Fisher, alongside Oliver’s personal losses. Other moments from the year that rocked the world are threaded throughout the piece, from Trump’s election to Brexit. The Commissioner (2022) examines the artistic commissions of the Egyptian billionaire businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, interspersed with clips of him on Da Ali G Show and snippets of his late son, Dodi, with Princess Diana. 
    Upon viewing We Put the Unction Into Erectile Dysfunction, it becomes apparent how universal these issues are. Body confidence and the pressure to perform in a certain way impact everyone, but these conversations still seem stilted around masculinity. “It is a taboo subject,” said Oliver. “Even talking about the exhibition beforehand, sometimes people didn’t know how to react. It has been encouraging since it opened though. A couple of friends have told me they had the same problems I refer to, like excessive blushing, and it really affected them when they were younger. I hope things are opening up but I think it’s the responsibility of male artists to be honest and address their own experience.”
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