Hard Targets
January 30, 2010—April 11, 2010
Wexner Center for the Arts
SPORTS AND MASCULINITY EXPLORED IN ART
GROUP EXHIBITION HARD TARGETS OFFERS PROVOCATIVE LOOK AT SPECTACLE, RITUALS, AND ARCHETYPESColumbus, OH—The multimedia exhibition Hard Targets, on view January 30–April 11, 2010 at the Wexner Center, surveys provocative artworks produced over the last 25 years that take masculinity and sports as their central themes. Ranging broadly in interest and focus from biology to commodity and locker room to stadium, Hard Targets endeavors to complicate and revise the time-honored archetype of the male athlete as an aggressive, heterosexual, hyper-competitive, emotionally remote subject. Instead, the artists in the show offer opposing views of masculinity and sport, and of the entire theater of athletic play, including the rituals and accoutrements that surround this intimate, and often still male-dominated, world. The more than 70 works—in a wide variety of media, including video, photography, mixed-media sculpture, painting, and installation—range from funny and irreverent to self-effacing and incisive.
The 21 artists in the show are Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney, Mark Bradford, Harun Farocki, Andreas Gursky, Douglas Gordon, David Hammons, Brian Jungen, Byron Kim, Jeff Koons, Cary Leibowitz, Glenn Ligon, Kori Newkirk, Catherine Opie (including a new suite of photographs of high school football players produced in Columbus), Philippe Parreno, Paul Pfeiffer (whose 11 exhibited pieces offer a mini-survey of this artist’s work), Collier Schorr, Sam Taylor-Wood, Hank Willis Thomas, and Jonas Wood. In addition, a video work by Joe Sola video will be presented in The Box video space during the first month of the show.
Each artist examines the way masculinity is characterized and “performed” in a sporting context, and each suggests that the ways we view and consume sports stars and athletic events are structured by more complex systems of desire and identification than most spectators realize. The works in the exhibition open up alternative, and possibly more democratic, interpretations and inflections of sports and sports fandom than the authorized, often frankly commercial, images that most frequently and forcefully convey the cultural identity of male athletes and athleticism.
Curator Christopher Bedford notes, “This exhibition strives to trigger new discussions in and between the fields of contemporary art and the vast multimedia spectacle of male-dominated sports. My hope is that it offers a critical evaluation of the separation that still persists between sport as a cultural phenomenon and art as a field of inquiry—and evidence of the insight to be gained from moments of messy intersection.”
This exhibition will be accompanied by an extended gallery guide with essays by Christopher Bedford, Matthew Biro (professor of modern and contemporary art at the University of Michigan), and Jennifer Doyle (professor of English at University of California-Irvine), plus interviews with select artists.
The Wexner Center and Ohio State Athletics will partner to produce celebrity public service announcements and events around the exhibition. Ohio State sports fans holding ticket stubs to any sporting event during the run of the exhibition will also receive buy-one-get-one admission. Additional arts/athletics collaborations are planned with the Arnold Classic, Columbus Blue Jackets, Greater Columbus Sports Commission, Ohio State Recreational Sports, and Ohio High School Athletics Association.
RELATED EVENTS
Winter Exhibitions Preview | Friday, January 29, 5–8 pm (for members and other special guests)Super Sunday
Sunday, February 7 | 1-5 pm | Galleries open 11 am-6 pm (FREE)
Gallery admission is free the first Sunday of every month—and one of those Sundays (“Super Sunday”) includes related activities for the whole family. Visitors can sample a range of special activities related to Hard Targets, including a tour, pennant-making, “drawing” with sports equipment, face painting, and more. A free screening of Go Tigers!, a documentary about high school football in Massillon, Ohio (called one of the best documentaries of all time by ESPN) will be held at 2 pm, along with trailers from sports movies.
Spectator/Sport: A Panel on Athletics, Art and Masculinity
Tuesday, March 2 | 7 pm | FREE | Film/Video Theater
Artist Kori Newkirk (featured in Hard Targets) and art historian/soccer blogger Jennifer Doyle talk with exhibition curator Christopher Bedford about their ideas and experiences through the lens of Hard Targets.
FILM SERIES
Players: Sports on Film
A view of football, cycling, and tennis through the cinematic eyes of talents Jørgen Leth and William Klein as they fix their lenses on John McEnroe, George Best, and other all-time greats. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $7 for general public; $5 for members, students, and senior citizens. Films are screened in the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Theater, at 1871 N. High St. inside the Wexner Center.
Sunday, February 7 | 2 pm | FREE
(part of Super Sunday)
Go Tigers! (Kenneth A. Carlson, 2001) 103 mins., 35mm
Go Tigers! chronicles the vigorous passion for high school football in the small rustbelt town of Massillon, Ohio. Adding to the drama of a typical football season is the fact that an upcoming school funding vote is tied to the success of the team.
Wednesday, February 17 | DOUBLE FEATURE:
7 pm—Sundays in Hell (Jørgen Leth, 1976; 110 mins., video)
9:15 pm—Football as Never Before (Hellmuth Costard, 1971; 105 mins., video)
Legendary cycling action, captured from every angle. With Sunday in Hell, Leth (featured in Lars von Trier’s Five Obstructions) uses 20 cameras to take you inside the grueling 1976 Paris-Roubaix cycling race as it winds through northern France.
As the Northern Irish would say, “Maradona good, Pelé better, George Best.” Often cited as a precursor to the film Zidane, Football as Never Before employs eight cameras to follow Best, the Manchester United great and 1968 European Footballer of the year, over the course of an entire match.
Wednesday, February 24 at 7 pm
The French (William Klein, 1982) 130 mins., 16mm
The great photographer/filmmaker William Klein goes behind the scenes at the 1981 French Open, capturing such tennis greats as John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Arthur Ashe in candid moments both on and off the court.
Thursdays at 5 pm and Saturdays at 1 pm (beginning February 4 through April 10)
These hourlong, docent-led tours cover the highlights of the exhibitions and encourage questions and discussions from guests. Free on Thursdays (as part of Free Thursdays from 4 to 8 pm); tour included with gallery admission on Saturdays.
Wex Lab: MAKE TV
Saturday, January 30 | 11 pm-4 pm | FREE
Families will see how to plan, storyboard, shoot, and edit a complete simple DVD all inside of one day. In conjunction with the Hard Targets exhibition, families are encouraged to choose a favorite sports prop or theme for their one-day video production. NOTE: Registration for this event is now full.
TEACHER WORKSHOP
Sports, Culture, and Gender: An Exploration through Writing and Video
Saturday, March 13 | 9 am–4 pm | FREE | Performance Space
Teachers will be invited to explore such questions as how sports reflect a society’s culture or its views on gender through writing activities and digital storytelling. All educators are invited, but this workshop is especially suited for language arts, social studies, and media or visual arts teachers. To register: 614-292-6493 or email edweb@wexarts.org.
On view at the Cartoon Research Library
Let the Games Begin: A Century of Sports Cartoons
January 15–April 9, 2010
Ohio State’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (just steps from the doors of the Wexner Center) offers another look at attitudes toward sports and athletes in this exhibition in its Reading Room Gallery.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
All Wexner Center exhibitions and related events receive support from the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. Accommodations are provided by The Blackwell Inn.
A note: Hard Targets is a revised presentation of Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports, a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York, that was itself an expanded version of Contemporary Projects 11: Hard Targets—Masculinity and Sports, an exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Bedford curated all three shows.) The Mixed Signals exhibition, tour, and catalogue were made possible, in part, by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the iCI Advocates, the iCI Partners, Agnes Gund, Gerrit and Sydie Lansing, and Barbara and John Robinson.
LOW-RESOLUTION PRESS IMAGE SELECTION
These images are provided exclusively to the press and may only be used for promotional purposes directly related to the corresponding Wexner Center for the Arts exhibition, or surrounding events. All reproductions must be accompanied by the proper credit line and copyright information provided below. Images must be reproduced as presented here and may not be distorted, mutilated, or cropped without permission. For hi-res images or more information please contact Karen Simonian (614) 292-9923 or KSimonian@wexarts.org or Tim Fulton (614) 688-3261 or TFulton@wexarts.org.Click each image to view.
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Matthew Barney CREMASTER 4, 1994 35mm film with sound 42 mins. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York |
Catherine Opie Josh, 2007 Chromogenic print 30 x 22 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles |
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Catherine Opie Football Landscape #5, (Juneau vs. Douglas, Juneau, Alaska), 2007 Chromogenic print 48 x 64 in. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles |
Paul Pfeiffer Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (28), 2007 Fujiflex digital Chromogenic print 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist and The Project, New York |
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Cary Leibowitz Homo State, 1989 2 felt pennants 9 x 24 in. each Courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York |
Hank Willis Thomas Scarred Chest, 2003 Lightjet print 30 x 20 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York |
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Brian Jungen Prototype for New Understanding #14, 2003 Nike Air Jordans, human hair 25 x 14 x 12 in. Collection of Lawrence B. Benenson, New York Photo courtesy of Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver |
Brian Jungen Prototype for New Understanding #16, 2004 Nike Air Jordans, human hair 22 1/2 x 12 x 18 in. Collection of Joel Wachs, New York Photo courtesy of Vancouver Art Gallery |
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Brian Jungen Michael, 2003 Screen print on powder-coated aluminum, 10 boxes Overall: approximately 34 x 44 x 33 in. Rennie Collection, Vancouver |
Jonas Wood Bullets, 2007 Oil on linen 72 x 52 in. Private collection Photo courtesy of Anton Kern Gallery, New York |
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Catherine Opie David, Austin, and Bryant, 2009 Chromogenic print 40 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles |
