tom moody
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In November I visited Robert Boyd at Schroeder Romero gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to talk about his exhibition "The Virgin Collection" (as in "Like a..."), a high-concept conflation of Madonna, Gap kids, Spanish penitents, leftist agitprop, and fine crystal. The centerpiece of the show was a tall, freestanding effigy in bridal attire, holding a bouquet, with what looked like a KKK hood covering the head. The headgear is actually the official garb of the Nazarenos (the aforementioned penitents), originally meant to debase the wearer, like a dunce cap. During the opening, Boyd stood immobile inside this getup while people boozed & schmoozed (but still gave him a lot of space). In a true test of self-discipline, he held his pose even when a random drunk knocked over a delicate sculpture right in front of him. Sprinkled on plinths or hanging throughout the gallery were wedding trappings straight out of Modern Bride--stemware, cake-cutting knife, bridal portraits--emblazoned with Virgin Collection logos or otherwise tweaked, but all very elegantly presented. Boyd is taking a subtly askance, queer-theory look at both wedding mores and what Walter Benjamin calls the "aestheticization of power" with the show, but he also had some anecdotes suggesting an emotional undercurrent. We talked about the experience of certain gay couples being politely but perceptibly shunned at straight weddings, as if the whole rutting hetero thing caused even BoBos (bourgeois bohemians) to close ranks at Ritual Time. And if you think the Klan hood has lost any transgressive potential through pop culture repetition (in Cohn Brothers movies and the like), he related how the first lab he took the "bridal photos" to refused to print the pictures. Such symbols do still have power, as attested to by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's recent outburst during oral arguments in the cross burning case. (I had a couple of sentences here where I mimicked an offended Klansman threatening Boyd for his various transgressions against Southern honor and matrimonial rites, but I deleted them because people didn't know I was joking.)