The Perverse World of Anthony Goicolea

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The Perverse World of Anthony Goicolea

In 1999 the Rare Gallery in New York City showcased the first solo exhibition by a young Cuban American photographer. “You and What Army” comprised an intriguing series of large mural-size photographs, portraying teenage boys engaged in “lax” and playful behavior. What was most striking, however, was that, on closer inspection, all the boys in the photographs appeared to have the same countenance: that of the artist.

Anthony Goicolea (b. 1971) has the predilection of transforming himself into a 15-year -old pubescent boy, with remarkable success, and then posing for his own pictures. Moreover,

Goicolea breaks new ground in self-portrait photography by playing all the parts in his seamless photo collages, something he achieves by his staunch patience, his mastery of the digital medium, and endless hours in front of Adobe Photoshop.

Goicolea’s boys inhabit a universe in which adults are conspicuously absent. The boys’ activities range from innocent cavorting as in Toss Off, to mischievous sexual experimentation like the two pool boys touching tongues in Whet. This seeming recession to infantilism has many layers of construe, none of which are insignificant. In order to examine these layers effectively, it is best to analyze a representative specimen of Goicolea’s work, which exemplifies many of his intentions.

One such composition is Feastlings, a 40 × 75 color C-print, which depicts an imminent food fight. The viewer is confronted with the interior of a courtly dining room in one-point

perspective. The room is austerely decorated in period style with heavy cypress-green curtains on the back and side walls. The gold of the curtain tresses is revisited...

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...d surely be a challenge.

Works Cited

Dalton, Jennifer. “Look At Me: Self-Portrait Photography After Cindy Sherman.” PAJ: A

Journal of Performance and Art Vol. 66, September 2000: 47-56.

Dawson, Jessica. “The Ultimate One-Man Show; Anthony Goicolea Plays All the Parts in His

Provocative Photographs.” The Washington Post 29 Nov. 2001, Section: Style: C05.

Franklin, Paul B. “Boyology.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Vol. 7:2, 2001: 355-

363.

Goicolea, Anthony. “You and What Army.” Artist’s Statement 1999. 31 Oct. 2003

O'Sullivan, Michael. “Conjuring Creepy Childhood Tableaux.” The Washington Post 23 Nov.

2001, Section: Weekend: T56.

Olson, Marisa S. “Anthony Goicolea Reflections of Self.” Planet Spring 2003: 44- 47.

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