Formal Analysis of Caleb Cole’s Trace (pink sheets)
During the 1980s and 1990s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic took the lives of over three hundred thousand people in the United State alone. As much as 66% of those lives were queer and/or trans. The toll that the virus had on the LGBTQ+ community was devastating, and today, there are 1.2 million people living with HIV, as well as millions more still carrying the psychological burden of losing so many friends and lovers over the years. Caleb Cole, a queer multimedia artist based in Boston, Massachusetts, recognized this impact and created a series of magazine collages called Traces. With this series, Cole strove to represent the absence of queer folks whose lives were lost during the AIDS epidemic and honor their memory.
Caleb Cole’s Traces series is comprised of thirty-three handmade collages. Cole’s medium of choice is rather unconventional, but it adds another layer of meaning to the work. They chose to use vintage adult gay magazines as the basis for their collages, cutting out the person from the spread and replacing it with other pieces from that specific photo shoot. In one piece in particular, titled Trace (pink sheets), the viewer can see a page number and footer from the magazine spread, as well as a white border around the piece. These types of magazines were popular during the height of the AIDS epidemic among gay and bisexual men. Cole chose to use material directly from the time period, as though the magazines themselves were witnesses to the horrors that AIDS brought to the gay community. There is also a particular contrast that lies in the nature of such magazines, given that they are considered pornographic, while Cole’s series was anything but lewd. Another interesting aspect of the work is its title, Traces. It can be interpreted literally as the fact that only a trace or silhouette of the original human figure remains in the piece. However, the title also lends itself to Cole’s overarching themes of queer intimacy and absence by conveying gentleness.
The pose of the figure in Trace (pink sheets) is certainly worth noting. The man kneels on the bed on all fours, his back arched and his legs slightly spread. His demeanor and stature appear somewhat boyish or perhaps bordering on feminine, though the pink monotony of the entire piece may also be lending a hand to that. This pose suggests openness and a clear hint towards the theme of sexuality. Further, his shoulders are scrunched up to his head, and his hands are balled into fists against the bedsheets. This denotes that the man may be hesitant or feel some embarrassment because he is so exposed. It is important to note that in the original magazine spread, this man was nude, and his pose certainly upholds that knowledge. In addition, Cole had very little say in the exact posing of the figures, nor the lighting or color scheme, due to the collage being created from found materials. This certainly adds a layer of authenticity to the work and the Traces series as a whole.
Due to the monotone nature of Cole’s collage, it is nearly impossible to tell whether the figure is looking towards the photographer or away. Cole may have left this ambiguous on purpose, leaving it up to the viewer to decide how this man feels about being photographed nude and in this context. The plain surroundings of the photograph allow the central focus to be on the figure. The wrinkled sheets of the unmade bed and the glow of a backlight give the piece a domestic yet still sensual mood. Another important aspect of the collage is the change in plane. The cutout figure is visibly behind the background, which is significant to Cole’s theme of loss. The figure has literally been cut out of his environment, so only a silhouette and a few shadows remain of what was once a vibrant, sensual young man. This is comparable to what happened to so many gay men during the AIDS epidemic.
The name of the gay magazine, InTouch With Men, is visible along the bottom as it was originally printed. Additionally, there is slight text visible on the figure on the back of the cutout as well as a slight variation in the plane which suggests the page is a little wrinkled. This allows viewers to think of it as an actual spread in a magazine instead of a photograph or painting: things that are all fabricated. It makes them see it as a real spread and as if that is simply how the normal magazine was published. Cole’s choice suggests that they intended to make the viewer feel as though they had stepped back in time and picked up the magazine for themselves.
Today, just about everyone in the queer community has been impacted by the AIDS epidemic, whether directly or not. There are far too few older gay and trans people in the world. It is terrible to think about but so important to learn from. It makes one wonder if the men who were originally in Caleb Cole’s magazine collages are still alive, or if they too were taken far too soon by AIDS. Regardless, Cole’s Traces series provides a beautiful glimpse into 1980s gay culture and a stark memorial to those who have passed.
