Working out with Warhol... sort of: negotiating the semiotics of the swish and the clone in ‘Andy Warhol’s T.V.’

Despite a lifelong fascination with bodies, Andy Warhol (1928–87) rarely put his own on display. Yet, on Andy Warhol’s T.V., he draws attention to his own physicality by variously working out and refusing to work out. In these extraordinary moments, Warhol interrogates two post-Stonewall archetypes of the gay male body: the swish and the clone. This article posits that as a queer figure a generation older than the clones, Warhol deliberately undermines the dialectical opposition between the two in these televisual performances. He exhibits a different gay male body: one without bulging pectorals, but with concealed strength and physical proficiency beneath his ‘clone drag’ attire: Levi 501s, trainers and a button-down shirt. This article further contextualises Warhol’s performances within the popularisation of bodybuilding, the proliferation of the Nautilus machine, the volatile gender performativity of gay male bodies in the years following Stonewall, and the cruising possibilities of television.