10, 2000
eveningsout
Exhibit takes a look at the unspoken parts of the gym
by Anthony Glassman
Cleveland-At Pride events across the state, you will see tanned flesh peeking out of tank tops and oh-so-skimpy shorts; it will be a classic case of Gay Pride meeting Body Pride.
Muscles will be flexed; hours of effort weekly will be on display in crowds of thousands. Working out has become an integral part of many people's lives, especially those in the gay and lesbian community.
Some people have no problem going to
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the gym; others remember all too well the fear that went with showering with the other kids in high school. Some may even have enjoyed what might have been their first glances at the naked bodies of their contemporaries.
All of this voyeurism, homoeroticism, and narcissism have found a new outlet in "Achieving Failure: Gym Culture 2000,” a new multi-media exhibition at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 8501 Carnegie Ave. in Cleveland.
The exhibit, encompassing sculpture, phoFinally, A NEW Gathering Place In Lakewood All Gay Men & Women Welcome
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tography, and performance art, looks at different aspects of the gym culture into which society, with its worship of the "perfect" body, has descended.
The aspect of wasted effort, for instance. You can climb a stair machine for hours, and simply wind up where you started. And where exactly are you after riding thirty miles on a stationary bicycle?
The exhibit also takes an architectural look at the structures of the machines themselves, the lines and curves, the pulley and the bar, the steel shining while the matte black seem empty spaces. Photographs of gym equipment can be as lovely as those of Frank Lloyd Wright houses, or skyscrapers.
Of course, the aspect that appeals most viscerally is the sexual, whether voyeuristic or narcissistic. In society's mind, many of the actions surrounding the entire body culture are hopelessly homoerotic. Spotting someone when they are doing bench presses is a perfect example: While your muscles are straining to lift the weights above your chest, five inches in front of your eyes is someone's crotch.
The movie Jeffrey made the most explicit use of this. While Steven Weber is lifting weights, not only are his eyes fixed on Michael T. Weiss' sweat-short-clad crotch looming overhead, but Weiss also unleashes a stream of inspirational exclamations that would sound as appropriate in the bedroom as in the weight room.
Then, of course, there is wrestling. Everyone has seen at some point the Spandexclad hulks grabbing each other in what seem to be highly inappropriate places; some have even given smutty names to some of the moves on TV.
But what about real wrestling, Greco-
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A reunion of six college housemates for a wedding between two of them sets the stage for the quirky, closet-cleaning I Think I Do. There is a definite smartness to this film despite the predictable ending and the ambiguously gay groom. It's gay Beverly Hills 90210 that contains vengeance for all of us who were scorned by that closeted co-ed in college. Sound familiar?
There's a lot going on in Chutney Popcorn, the plight of Reena, an Indian-American lesbian who is trying desperately to please her mother, live up to the legacy of her perfect older sister and retain her roots. The plot thickens when the older sister learns she is barren, and her lesbian sib offers to birth the baby using her husband's sperm.
Attending the Kenneth Branagh narcissistic film school is writer-director Nisha Ganatra, who also stars in the movie as well.
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Roman, amateur, high school and collegiate wrestling? There is a series of photographs of young wrestlers in this series, taken by Jessica Wynne, an acclaimed photographer.
"I think as a woman, she was able to get photographs that a man wouldn't," said Bill Arning, curator of the exhibit. "They were showing off for her in that way that is appropriate for teenage boys."
"It is a pretty sexy piece in general," Arning says of the exhibit, "with a lot of flesh. in view."
Arning, as well as a number of the artists, is openly gay, and has contributed articles to magazines as diverse as Time Out New York, Art in America, World Art, Out and Honcho.
"In 1995 I joined a gym. Buying the expensive membership made me commit to move my body on a regular basis, but it was spending the required hours in this new environment that gave me time to think about it," he wrote in a companion piece to the article available on the contemporary art center's web site.
"I started to ask myself questions in an attempt to learn what this strange-looking place meant. What did the design of the space say? How did the behavior and movements of its occupants differ from the ways they commonly behaved outside of its doors?"
The exhibition “Achieving Failure: Gym Culture 2000” run June 2 through August 6 at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 8501 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland. The center's fundraiser, “Let's Get Physical," will accent the exhibit June 10 at 8 pm with live performances, a silent auction, and other activities tied in to the gym theme. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door, with member discounts available.
She may have bitten off a bit more than she can chew. But the imagery and plot turns make the film worth your while.
The big highlights of the film are the lovely Jill Hennessy as the commitmentissue-laden girlfriend of Reena, and Sakina Jaffrey who plays Sarita the sister.
Jaffrey takes us through an arch of redefining herself as a woman to the jealousy she feels at the bonding between her husband and her sister.
Former Law & Order star Hennessy plays a convincing lesbian partner who battles with her commitment issues while holding the turkey baster.
And if none of these appeal to you, you can always check out Chad Lowe as a gay college swimmer in Floating. Or, catch the 3-hour and 28-minute winner of the Jury Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, The Mother and the Whore, the oldest movie in the lineup.
With all these choices, there has to be something you haven't seen, and something to interest you.
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