StaySoft by Goldendean

About StaySoft by Goldendean, © Dean Hutton

Life is hard. As a human being, it's natural to want to protect oneself from life's challenges and difficulties. But for those with trauma, and especially those who face oppression, the desire to become invulnerable can be particularly strong. For us “STAY SOFT” can be a mantra. This work invites viewers to celebrate the power of softness as a form of resistance to oppression and as an act of resilience to hardship.

Goldendean invites you to a tender moment with a “soft radical”. As a “Fat Queer White Trans body” in the context of South Africa, Goldendean makes space for vulnerability, asking who or what is entitled to take up space. STAY SOFT’s generous curves – modelled on bodies like mine – creates space for vulnerability. It is a representation of the same fat queer bodies who often don’t fit dominant beauty standards. Tender, queer bodies that show up messy and out of breath, bodies that are often erased or made invisible. Bodies that defy definition, intersecting identities with complicated histories.

"STAY SOFT" occupies a central space at Theatre Utrecht and encourages visitors to come into relationship with the artwork in an embodied way – to embrace, carefully, respectfully, tenderly this living, breathing sculpture. As you contemplate the words, STAY SOFT, the sculpture serves as a reminder to prioritize care, kindness, and compassion in the face of adversity. The goal of this work is to create a space where viewers can reflect on their own relationship with softness and to feel empowered to embrace this quality as a source of strength and resistance. To consider how each of us can be more loving in a world that can sometimes make you feel hopeless and alone - how we can "STAY SOFT" in hard times.

About Dean Hutton

I am a genderqueer trans media artist provoking dialogue about the gaze, queer bodies, love and social justice. My strategy of simple and often improvised, disruptive actions by a “Fat Queer White Trans body” shares moments of soft courage to affirm the right of all bodies to exist, to be celebrated and protected. Their extensive studio practice, as a photographer and a visual artist producing works on paper, digital video and sculptural objects, bridge intersecting genres of documentary, fiction and fantasy to produce radical queer counter narratives.

I share moments of soft courage to affirm the right of all bodies to exist, to be celebrated and protected – to invoke those tender feelings through deliberate acts of remaining silly and playful, sometimes a clown, sometimes a warrior, always vulnerable… Radically soft in an uncompromising world. I am a tender queer investing trust in an audience to respond in kindness, to let our bodies be safe together, to queer space no matter the way we sometimes fail each other.

I am a white non-binary queer person. My physicality as a person is very closely linked to this sculpture. I have a fat body, a big belly and thick arms & legs, short hair. Because of my size, and also because of our shifting understandings of sex and gender, my sex/gender is not necessarily obvious.

As a “Fat Queer White Transgender body” in the context of South Africa, I question who or what is entitled to take up space. In doing so, I address the personal and political of hypervisibility: being visible (as a fat, queer, white transgender body) and invisible, unimportant at the same time (as a fat, queer, white transgender body).

At one time, bodies like mine were immortalized in neolithic sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf – Long thought to be figures of ritual power symbolic of success, fertility, or a ‘mother’ goddess” – new research interprets the “exaggerated physiques” as symbols of survival. Now as the hypervisibility of queer and trans bodies, this work, blown up larger than life, centre and make space for those that are often made invisible.

The great thing about inflatables is that you can present very serious issues in a playful way that allows us to work through hard questions with the same curiosity as when we were children.

As a human being, it's perfectly natural to want to protect oneself from life's challenges and difficulties. But for those who face oppression, the desire to become invulnerable - can be particularly strong. When you are constantly subjected to discrimination and mistreatment, it's understandable that you might want to build up a tough exterior that makes it seem like nothing can shake you. However, while this may be a tempting approach in the short term, it's ultimately not sustainable in the long run.

One of the biggest problems with trying to become invulnerable is that it can actually make you more vulnerable in certain respects. When you close yourself off from your feelings, you may find that you are less able to connect with others and build meaningful relationships. Additionally, if you are constantly putting on a facade of strength, it can be difficult to reach out for help when you really need it. This can leave you feeling isolated and alone, which can exacerbate the effects of oppression.

Staying soft, on the other hand, means allowing yourself to be vulnerable and embracing your emotions. It means acknowledging that it's okay to feel sad, angry, or frustrated, and seeking out support from others when you need it. By staying soft, you are better able to connect with and empathize with others, which can help to build stronger relationships and foster a greater sense of community. It also allows you to remain open to new experiences and opportunities, which is crucial in a world that is constantly changing and evolving.

As Goldendean, I’ve been told that I can be divisive and that my work is difficult. I know and accept that is who I am in this life and to expect resistance. People are very sure of their beliefs until they are challenged to change. I’m situating my work there in the discomfort, to create experiences that are both challenging and affirming. Making nurturing places as an extension of my body to be received with tenderness, trusting that you will find it worthy of care. To perform moments of radical softness in the face of everyday and extraordinary social violences that keep us distracted and divided.

Using repetitive forms, typographic meditations; lesser idols and living, breathing sculptures that take space, inviting touch, celebrating connection to allow encounters between playful bodies that are complicated and loving; tender and questioning; visible and vulnerable. To celebrate bodies like mine, soft, fat, trans bodies that do not fit, are erased and made invisible. To love. To be tolerant. To be difficult and refuse legibility. To STAY SOFT as an act of resistance.