Tough Guys and Soft Guys

Performance slide lecture /Diavortrag
2004

The following questions were sent out via email:
/ Folgende Fragen wurden per Email verschickt:

• What makes up a really tough guy?
• Other than the opposite of the above, what distinguishes someone as soft?
• What would you rather be?

The text of the lecture is a collage of answers received to these questions. The photos were taken by the artist on the way to work, in spare time or on vacation.
/ Der Text der Vorlesung ist eine Collage aller Antworten auf diese Fragen. Die Fotos sind vom Künstler auf dem Weg zur Arbeit aufgenommen, in der Freizeit oder im Urlaub.

"(...) But soft is not necessarily a contrast to tough and both terms have negative and positive connotations. Soft is a good, gentle term too, with associations of kindness etc. No one would like to be described as being a bit "wet", but being a bit "soft" doesn't sound so bad. (...)

As LL Cool J once put it: "She's as soft as a pillow when I'm as hard as steel" (from: "I need love") - and the other way round of course! (...)

If the chord on your guitar is too tough it's going to break; if it's too soft there is no sound. - Keanu Reeves in Little Buddha.

The guitar is interesting, because it’s got that whole Rock’n’Roll mythology of being tough and rocking. (...)

Hard drinking, hard gambling, womanising, and getting the god damm job done."

video documentation

slide 5

slide 1

slide 18