MixTate Josh Caffé on Lionel Wendt

Lionel Wendt’s Untitled after 1934 presents a Sri Lankan dancer standing in a statuesque pose. The grainy texture, solarised light and shadows that define the torso make it look like a sweat- glistened body. The image is cropped half-way down the model’s face, which draws you in and makes you want to know more. If you take it out of context, and imagine it somewhere like a dark room in a club, it becomes a very seductive thing. Anonymity can be very alluring.

Even though it’s a strong, masculine image, in line with contemporary notions of the idealised male form, there is a soft- ness to it too. The underwear the model is wearing could be mistaken for women’s attire, and there is a very feminine aspect to the positioning of his hips. To me, it’s an androgynous image, which I can relate to quite a lot. It also reminds me of the artwork of new wave and Belgian new beat records from the 1970s and ’80s, where androgyny is presented in grainy, shadowy effects.

Traditional Sri Lankan dances are often very per- cussive, drum-led forms, which was a big inspiration behind the mix. It starts off low tempo, with lots of jazzy, percussive sounds that build to a crescendo. Being a singer- songwriter, I also like to focus on the subject matter of songs; you can see that some of the titles and the lyrics echo the seductive nature of the image, like ‘Climax’, which features a woman orgasming over an ethereal electronic sound,
or ‘This Is The Final War’ by Psychic TV, which celebrates the human body as being both male and female. The mix takes you on a journey of what Wendt’s photograph does for me: it lures you in and then celebrates this superhuman androgynous being.

^{Untitled was purchased with funds provided by the South Asia Acquisitions Committee in 2013 and is on display in Monsieur Venus, Tate Modern.}

^{Josh Caffé is a DJ, vocalist and producer based in London.}

This mixtape is no.20 in the MixTate series.