The Guys With The Same Name: Hollywood Lips Speak Volumes at The White Room Gallery

What do you get when you put a Hans with a Hans? Art that engages on all fronts with vibrant, evocative female-centric tableaus that leave the viewer wanting more. The White Room Gallery in East Hampton (3 Railroad Avenue) introduced the Netherlands photographers, who create under the entertaining moniker “The Guys With The Same Name,” to the Hamptons art scene in May as featured artists in their La Femme exhibit and subsequently showed them in Every Picture Tells a Story, Red Carpet and their current exhibit, Hot Shots.

The Guys With The Same Name grew out of a shared passion for art and a desire to pursue a signature creative vision with pieces focusing on recurring motifs, such as weapons, police, lipstick and “fashion victims,” all used to comment on themes of power, gender roles and consumer culture. Although sensuality is central to their oeuvre, women are not portrayed as objects of desire but as strong, stylish and empowered figures. Every piece begins with an idea, often sketched out in detail, before sets and props are built.

All images are photographed either in the studio or on location.

The cover image, “Hollywood Lips #1,” embodies the fantasy of Hollywood glamour. A woman applies Oscar-gold lipstick, a striking symbol of luxury and the desire for stardom. Hollywood icons such as the Oscar statuette and the Hollywood sign evoke ambition, the dream of opulence, and the fleeting nature of fame. Serendipitously, the image ties in perfectly with the Hamptons International Film Festival which the White Room Gallery is partnering with by transforming the gallery space into a private lounge for directors and invited patrons for the duration of the festival. Think Green Room in the White Room.

Besides “Hollywood Lips #1,” many of The Guys’ compositions highlight iconic elements of the culture. Batman, a classic symbol of masculine power, is deliberately reimagined. In their piece “Batman on Heels,” the superhero is no longer the dominant figure but precariously balanced atop a woman’s raised leg in a towering Louboutin heel. In “Catwoman Shot Batman” the superhero is reduced to a Polaroid. In “The Power of Batman” he is captured in a pair of pantyhose.

By flipping the perspective, The Guys turn a familiar male archetype into a playful reflection on gender and power, revealing the woman as the true figure of strength without making her into a femme fatale, which is often the narrative when the power struggle between the sexes comes into play.

Celebrated objects like the iconic Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle that Marilyn Monroe put on the map when she famously responded to an interviewer’s question for Life magazine in 1952, “What do I wear to bed? Why Chanel No. 5 of course,” stand for far more than luxury in The Guys’ photographs provoking questions about influence and autonomy: Are we truly free in our choices, or are we shaped by advertising, trends, and the social pressure to belong? The fragrance becomes a symbol of our addiction to shifting ideals of fashion, status and consumerism. Through The Guys’ lens, the famous bottle converts into a vase for “Chanel Lollipops,” with the perfume filling a water gun in “Girls Gun” and fueling a motorcycle in “Chanel Gasoline,” finding a greater purpose than just a wafting scent.

And for the record, Marilyn did wear Chanel No. 5 and did sleep in the nude, but she did not want to reveal that to the interviewer, ergo the fortunate endorsement for Chanel for which, by the way, Monroe did not receive a dime. Stilettos caught in a fishnet seems playful but the title “Stuck” says much more. The same can be said of “Doggy Style.” Is it just a cute scenario of a dog and a woman in curlers or a commentary on the absurdity of being a slave to fashion?

The Guys made their way to The White Room Gallery because the female-owned gallery is always looking for artists who reverse the archetypes and champion women as not only powerful but also depicted in unexpected ways. Having launched The Guys in the U.S., the gallery has exclusive domestic representation and has already engaged several collectors with The Guys’ unique style of artistry.

For more information info on The Guys and Hot Shots follow @whiteroomgalleryeh on IG or visit thewhiteroom.gallery.