male gaze

1995: Did Bill Clinton really?1996: Can men and women be friends?1997: Do men get violent because of Marilyn Manson?1998: Should men dress better?1999: Which Backstreet Boy Is Gay?2000: Can men be ethically non-monogamous2001: Is it cool to have gay friends?2002: Can men and women really be friends?2003: Are men making more money than women2004: Do men have to go to war?2005: Can men be feminists?2006: Do men like dancing alone?2007: Does metrosexual mean gay?2008: Are men still making more money than women2009: Should men get alimony?2010: Is it true that men eat their young?2011: Should men get paternity leave2012: Are men capable of childrearing?2013: Do men have feelings?2014: Male retirees need videogames and cheetos2015: Are men too fragile? Are men terrorists?2016: Should men chop their dicks off?It is 2015. Masculinity enters its forty-something-ith year of decline since the Second Wave. Paleo diets, birth control, steroids, night shifts, climate change, gun control, mortgage loans, and Sex And The City spelled the End of Men.I looked you up on the internet. Swipe right for a good time. What are you but another lamb on the market?Not all men are islands. Some float aimlessly from shore to shore. Others create empires on their continents. And even more cling to each other like hovering algae.Some are dense and stocky like marble, stale like a full-bodied wine that's been left open for too long. Some are elusive and charming, chameleons sunbathing in plain sight.I remember every man I've kissed, most of their mouths overtook mine and their tongues wriggled with wet enthusiasm. Some men hunt and some men steal. Some swim upstream to spawn and disappear.You are floating in a sea of men. Their bodies slither around you like eels on a dancefloor.Sea of Men shows my admiration and contempt for the best and worst of masculinity.Jennifer Chan makes remix videos, gifs and websites that contend with gendered affects of media culture.

This site-specific audio-walk was developed for the exhibition “The Flaneur: From Impressionism to the Present” at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. Taking Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd” as a starting point, it examines the topic of flanerie and presents four alternative characters from fine art and literature as female flaneuses. While listening to their stories, the participant is led through the area surrounding the museum.

“When we think of the woman in the crowd, walking among other people, does she ever turn around and look back? Suddenly having distinct features, a personality, an identity? What if she, in turn, was the flaneur, or rather the flaneuse? One that is not relegated to the periphery? One that has her own way, her own wishes and desires? Is it even possible to think of a figure that transcends this binary opposition of established gender norms?”