Gargoyles
2025
3 channel synchronised video and sound installation on LED video walls, screen printed murals
installation view Jan van Eyck Academie Open Studios, Maastricht
Gargoyles is an ongoing project that characterises different masculine archetypes in relation to the act of laughter. Animated as cartoon mouths, these are gargoyles in the metaphorical sense—caricatures of failing men. The gargoyles enact modes of masculine and patriarchal communication through interactions between themselves and with the viewer, in a series of vignettes. Languages of dominance and submission, as well as vulnerability and weakness, unfold. The theme of the interactions circulates around the act of laughter, instances of humour, ridicule and humiliation in a multitude of different scenarios of masculine relationships, delivered in short interactions.
Laughter can be a spontaneous outburst, an uncontrolled and chaotic eruption from the body—bringing people together in a giggling mess. Conversely, laughter can be calculated, manipulative, and divisive—reinforcing structures of domination and carrying implicit violence. Within patriarchal structures, laughter circulates as a marker of complicity and dominance between men, whilst also having the potential to expose vulnerabilities and create moments of interpersonal synchronicity.
Directly on the walls are screenprints of transcribed scores for laughter.
Animation: Eduardo Vazquez