This very short film  SWEETMEAT from Dutch artist Bart Hess really appealed to Queerguru Editor, who has an insatiable appetite for candy (amongst other things). In the film, Hess frames a playful performance at the intersection of machismo and homoeroticism as two opponents lock bodies. Engaged in a fight choreography, while eating sweets from each other’s bodies, the fighters illustrate the paradox of attraction and repulsion within perceptions of masculinity as a scoreboard tracks their progress.

Presented as part of the Am I Masculine? exhibition at Het NoordBrabants Museum in the Netherlands, the installation film centers a new combat sport of Hess’ own creation, exploring the glorification of violence in male representation. Studying contradictions found in wrestling and the sculpted male form, SWEETMEAT explores the power of the gaze and objectification, toying with a space where hypermasculine behavior blurs with queer intimacy. 

Hess told Queerguru, “The match takes place in a ring and is performed by two people. Both participants have 100 candies stuck to their bodies – made in homemade molds by melting gummy bears and adding red and blue coloring. This way the opponents can be distinguished during the fight.”