Torso, by William Lakin, is from the 2021 series Five Minutes After Birth, a response to the social conditioning men experience in modern Western societies. Referencing anti-social behaviour, sexuality and traditional gender roles, this work offers both a critical and reflective response to men’s pursuit of power and control, and their inclination to engage in competitive and often harmful behaviours.
Acting as a map of a male consciousness the sequence bounces between performative fictions, observations and short interviews which together highlight the ambiguity of the term masculine in a world where traditional definitions clash with progressive interpretations of what it means to be a man.
This work is not intended as a celebration or survey of modern masculinity, rather it is a meditation on dated but prevalent masculine identities and the disruption and questioning they are increasingly subject to. Using masculinity as an identity to deconstruct, this work poses broader questions about social hierarchies, shared narratives and increasingly polarised discourses around such subjects.
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