Craig Francis Power  |  I Think About You When I Masturbate
April 9 - 21, 01

With an essay by Chris Lloyd

The full scope of Craig Francis Power's videowork I Think About You When I Masturbate, exhibited in the Khyber Closet Gallery from April 9 - 21, 2001, was illustrated to me by way of two indirect sources. One was the behavior of a local television news agency regarding the title of the exhibition. The other came from a chance encounter with a washed up middle-aged white guy while I was waiting in line to renew my drivers license.

The reaction of the TV News group was easy and predictable; they thought Craig's videos were pornographic, and were insistent that I describe what they would see if they were to look at the videos. Like most forms of art, one should really experience it directly to make a full analysis, so they did eventually send a reporter / guy carrying a camera over to do a quick "interview" with Craig and I. Seeing as the videos themselves appear less contentious than the title, the News lost interest and a potential controversy (in their eyes) was diffused. Ironically, this plays neatly into the concepts Craig deals with in his video; those surrounding the mediated construction of identity; in this case, reality. The videos did not meet the News' notions of newsworthy, therefore they were ignored. In effect, the videos were too obvious a critique of the media; the potential sensationalism of yet another deranged or pornographic artwork funded by taxpayers was diffused, and the story / reality quashed.

Douglas really brought it all home to me. While waiting to have my license renewed I found myself sitting beside a middle aged man who was babbling his recent life history to anyone sitting beside him - after the two successive women he had been speaking to left, he turned his attention to me. I had the uncomfortable privilege of learning more details of this man's life than I ever would want to know; that his wife of the past ten years had left him so he was moving home to the Maritimes from Ontario I had already overheard twice; that she was sixteen years younger and Asian I had overheard as well; but this man confided to me how he had broken her in, and taught her to give head - he said this just as easily and nonchalantly as if he were discussing automotive repairs or the weather.

What is it with dirty old men and their ingrained sexism? And was it just my maleness that gave Douglas the liberty to discuss his twisted personal views of the opposite sex with me? I could only sit still, silent and staring straight ahead, and hope he would stop talking to me. Which he did as soon as a pretty young girl sat next to him and the whole thing started over again. Just as my number was called and I left them behind I heard him ask her age (she was sixteen) and compliment her fair skin.

I Think About You When I Masturbate (Or Four Lessons in Masculinity), from its very title and the four vignettes which make up the video installation, attempt to disrupt this assumption of shared values and machismo which the mass media is more than happy to dish out in countless Hollywood blockbusters, jeans ads, and just about any other representation of maleness. The videos take aim at and puncture a variety of concepts regarding masculinity: the youth sowing his wild oats, the aspiration of the proper Charles Atlas / Hulk Hogan male physique, the tortured hard-drinking genius artist-figure best embodied by Jackson Pollock (himself more media construction than real figure). The videos calmly, with wry humour and gentle understatements, put the artist in roles which are contradictory, awkward and embarrassingly funny, yet are rich and deep in their aim. They resonate well beyond the initial viewing. Far from pornographic, they problemitize the foundations of accepted "maleness", and call into question the societal acceptance of such statements as "boys will be boys".

I can't help but wonder what the Douglas's of the world would think if they were to be confronted with Craig's video during the evening news, sandwiched neatly between an ad for a high-powered muscle car and one for a revitalizing hair tonic.

© Chris Lloyd