ENTERTAINMENT > TEXAS HOLD ‘IM
Red and Blue caught in embrace (Nikki Telegan)
Blue is the last one standing (Nikki Telegan)
By EROS C BACKUS & MADS REARDON | ccdyouvegotmail@gmail.com | 6 porcelain cowboy hats, scraped elbows, red and blue patchwork chaps, about 15 blank porcelain playing cards, kerchiefs, a bag of sand mix
Originally Made: December 15th, 2022
Red and Blue pose for a cordial photo before the show begins (Nikki Telegan)
Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em, lead and follow, give and take; Red and Blue have always been at odds with each other and in tandem.
The American masculine needs no explanation - it is always understood - but when the cowboy is queered, the chaps are bedazzled, the hats explode on impact and you find that you’re in the middle of a western film fight vignette, all you end up wanting in the world is for Texas to hold you.
Red and Blue remove their boots and don their hats before entering the ring (Nikki Telegan)
Playing with blanks (Nikki Telegan)
Texas, hold ‘im is a performance exploration of rural American masculinity through a trans-masculine lens. The performance functions as queering of the American masculine, a deep dive for all involved into the reckoning of the perceived threat and inherent homoerotics of rural manhood. With each iteration, Reardon and Backus switch roles.
Texas Hold ‘Im is a love letter to the rural masculine, to boyhood, to violence, to impermanence and object, to showbiz, but most of all to ourselves.
Xoxo
-Mads and Eros
The fight begins (Nikki Telegan)
