Just Different at the Cobra Museum

A Hans-Peter Feldman outside the Cobra

David Hockney
"Going to be a Queen for Tonight" 1960
Oil on hardboard, 124.5x94cm

Outside the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen one is greeted by a gigantic copy of Michelangelo’s David, with his flesh painted Barbie-doll pink—and hair (above both heads) colored a Day-Glo blond (by Hans-Peter Feldman). From both Italian Renaissance depictions of idealized male beauty to Aryan versions created by contemporary artists, romanticized ideals don’t often jibe with day-to-day reality.

David Wojnarowicz
"Peter Hujar Dreaming/Yukio Mishima: St. Sebastian" 1982
Acrylic and spray paint on masonite, 121.92x121.92cm

The show “Just Different!” attempts to present the idealized Dutch version of an accepting post-queer museum show in a land where ugly reality forces progressive politicians into hiding.

Richard Hawkins
"Peanut Gallery, Grand Opening" 2006
Olil on canvas, 122x152.4cm

From the forward in the catalog, Cobra’s museum director John Vrieze writes:

“One of the big achievements of the Western civilized world is the realization that human sexuality is more complex than the straightjacket that restrained our thinking in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Not until the end of the 20^th and beginning of the 21^st century did broad layers of the population begin to accept bisexuality, homosexuality and transexuality. In some European countries, however, this emancipation is still very much taboo today. Not long ago in Milan, for example, a major presentation of homosexuality and art was banned by the city council the day before it was due to open, principally because it included an explicit nude photograph of a hermaphrodite.”

Francesco Vezzoli
"Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula" 2005
35mm film transferred to DVD, 5:00min

Similarly, Dutch artist Sooreh Hera had her work of Iranian gay men pulled from a show in The Hague, so it appears that museums in The Netherlands are not as free of the straightjacketed thinking as the picture they paint of the Western civilized world. That Western-centric view of steady enlightened progress is a bit of revisionist thinking itself, as Ancient and Medieval times (along with non-Western cultures) did not institutionalize their homophobia as did the industrial-era West. But perhaps if one continually repeats the message of broad acceptance—like the messages of our current political campaigns—eventually it will be unquestioningly accepted.

Koken Ergun
Untitled 2004
Video without sound, 8:54min

Seeing Richard Hawkins work and thinking about his past foray into abstraction, then viewing the abstract blood and urine images of Anthony Viti (I+R #42-43, 2003) made me wonder about representations of gender, sexuality, and it’s social context that stepped outside the figurative. Taking a step back and looking across the exhibition hall, the content leans toward the didactic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—but it isn’t the only mode of operation.

Erik Schmidt
"Suitwatcher's Anonymous" 2003
16mm film on DVD, 6:15min

The videos in the show did a good job of presenting alternate takes on the topic. Koken Ergun’s failed attempts at tying a head scarf not only express the gap between genders in the Muslim world, but also points to the failed understanding between religious believers. Erik Schmidt’s suited thrashing of an executive’s chair is mesmerizing as it speaks to the nature of power and fetishism. Downstairs in the theater Erwin Olaf shows us an indoor soccer game staged in drag, a strange mix of hetero-normative and camp. Also worthwhile was Tracy Moffatt’s video Heaven, 1997 where she uses her video camera like a penis, aggressively pursuing Australian surfers as the attempt to change from their wetsuits to street clothes in beachside parking lots.

Ulrike Ottinger
"Die Betörung der Alten Freak Orlando" 1981
Digital print, 60x90cm

“Gewoon Anders!” is the Dutch title for “Just Different!” a group show based around issues of gender, identity, homosexuality, and politics at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam. The show opened just before my arrival on June 14^th, and runs through September 21, 2008.

Del LaGrace Volcano
"Hermaphrodite Torso" 1999
Giclee print, 120x90cm

Guest curator Frank Wagner has broken the exhibition into four thematic areas, focusing on Control (Policing Sex and Desire), Sex (Aroma of Passion), Gender (Trans Worlds), and Life (Imagination, Invention and Imitation). A mix of painting, photography, and video, the work chronologically covers artists working in the 60’s like David Hockney (Going to be Queen for a Night, 1960) to hot young Chinese Photshoper Chi Peng (I FUCK ME – Telephone Booth, 2005).

Chi Peng
"I FUCK ME - Telephone Booth" 2005
C-print, 155x120cm

Chi Peng's Self-Portrait with One Breast Photoshopped In

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