The show, which shares its namesake with the infamous ‘men’s only’ club in Melbourne, of which Tsiavis and Dimopolous were at times organisers, is a provocative exploration of the burgeoning gay scene of the 1970s, when some men took to wearing coded handkerchiefs to advertise their sexual preferences.
TROUGH X is a slick and slippery series of shots exploring these mythical ‘Hanky Codes’.
I went in knowing absolutely nothing about the hanky codes, which, as a straight, bearded male, made the show bounce around my cranium quite a few times as information was collected from various sources and the ideas, themes and colours started to make a modicum of sense. It brought a fun aspect to the show, especially when you find out the real meanings behind the colours.
The show would be a whole other experience if you went in with an understanding of the hanky codes, but I found that it was a true learning experience going in with no knowledge at all.
Visually, the works are quite stunning, clear and crisp, the colours bold and sharp, drawing you in to the picture, either to get lost in the subtle, thick blue, or to get socked around by the menacing, violent red.
As the Hanky Code slowly became aware to me, the pictures changed as I tried to interpret the colours and themes involved. My first impressions were cast aside as some of the pictures went quickly down the path of delicious depravity, while of others I remained quite ignorant until further research was made. Let me just say that the codes can get very specific.
The models look solid, masculine to the utmost extreme, then put in white tennis shorts and pink crop tops, or casts and splints. The idealized image of man is turned on its head in X_HIBITION, but femininity is absent. What is on display is hyper-man, gossip-magazine male worship but ramped up to 1000.
Tsiavis and Dimopolous’ show goes to some dark, explicit territory, but the vibrancy and overt fun of the underlying pursuits contained in the photographs lend much to the experience.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
TROUGH X_HIBITION
By John Tsiavis & Nik Dimopolous
Gaffa Gallery, 238 Clarence Street Sydney
February 23 – Match 6
