Julien Ceccaldi
Adult Theater

Julien Ceccaldi’s latest show is like browsing a twisted DeviantArt profile. On display in his solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 were vignettes drawn from his own original illustrated universe. His comics, paintings, and films appropriate the stylistic conventions of shōjo, a genre of Japanese media aimed at adolescent girls. Think Sailor Moon here—although ardent fans may notice that his slim-waisted, tall, and swishy figures more closely resemble the cast of Chiho Saito’s Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997). As an immense vitrine full of sketches and working documents demonstrated, characters are the focus of Ceccaldi’s practice and the actors in his Adult Theater.

The denizens of this world tend toward the surreal. A group of girlfriends share chins exaggerated to the point of looking like beaks; a hulking male body builder is revealed to be dating an anthropomorphic thumb. Planted at the centre of these bizarre personages is Francis, a meek yet determined man who serves as the protagonist of many of Ceccaldi’s tales. Francis is, to put it frankly, deeply uncool. With his appearance—sporting long hair despite his balding pate—Francis challenges conventions around male (and queer male) beauty. Surrounding him with such hyperbolically gendered figures—who tilt, interestingly, toward the masculine—Ceccaldi foregrounds the inadequacies of his protagonist in the face of social norms.