But Boys of Summer – perhaps as a result of its eclecticism – actually hits on some important notions about what it means to be a man today. Masculinity, it seems, now allows for the retention of a boyhood demeanor. From stereotypes to icons, these men symbolize hope, desire and otherness through the parts they play, the airs they put on, or the costumes they don. No longer the debonair gentlemen in waiting or the cool and callous 007, these representations of the contemporary man elucidate how our definition of not only what is acceptable, but what is respectable, has expanded exponentially.
Flanked by Nick Cave’s self portraits wearing his studded, beaded and feathered face masks from his remarkable full body outfits; Jesper Just’s video of a middle-aged man dancing a choreographed number that imitates ballet or ice-skating in a public square while a young man who watches breaks down in tears from what he perceives to be the unbelievable beauty of the act; and Ebony G. Patterson’s paintings of notorious Jamaican criminals that comment on definitions of beauty and race through their watery and colorful depictions of faces, the familiar but unconventional representations take on a severity/seriousness despite their gaiety.