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OF VISUAL ARTIST JOÃO DELFIM
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The Brightest Star is a homage to Paul Oremland’s underground coming-of-age gay drama Like It Is. Released in 1998, the film makes opposite worlds collide as it narrates the tale of a young bare-knuckle street boxer coming to terms with his homosexuality. The portrayal of Craig’s internal conflicts as he struggles with feelings of being gay while trapped in a macho working-class environment is refined yet down-to-earth, which helps emphasize the intensity of Craig’s journeys of self-discovery.
In this zine-inspired linocut micro-publication, the movie’s two main themes come together: the desire for the male body and how it guides the protagonist’s discovery of his sexual orientation, and the idea that boxing is a practice built on the principle of the confrontation of two male bodies in a quest for virility and dominance.
As the stars in the background surround Craig, his journey is represented through highly-contrasted flashes of a boxing match. The purple background is a reference to the expression Lavender Boy, rendered popular in the 1920s as an insult to designate men who were thought to be too feminine or not as manly as expected. The overlaying of these two opposites is meant to illuminate the complexity of a person’s discovery of their sexuality, as well as redefine an expression that once served as an insult by turning it into a source of strength.
In this zine-inspired linocut micro-publication, the movie’s two main themes come together: the desire for the male body and how it guides the protagonist’s discovery of his sexual orientation, and the idea that boxing is a practice built on the principle of the confrontation of two male bodies in a quest for virility and dominance.
As the stars in the background surround Craig, his journey is represented through highly-contrasted flashes of a boxing match. The purple background is a reference to the expression Lavender Boy, rendered popular in the 1920s as an insult to designate men who were thought to be too feminine or not as manly as expected. The overlaying of these two opposites is meant to illuminate the complexity of a person’s discovery of their sexuality, as well as redefine an expression that once served as an insult by turning it into a source of strength.
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ALL ARTWORKS ARE ORIGINAL CREATIONS.
© 2024 JOÃO DELFIM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL ARTWORKS ARE ORIGINAL CREATIONS.
© 2024 JOÃO DELFIM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.