Embrace

This work was created around the time I began using male portraits as a subject, something I had rarely done before. It reflects my growing interest in the vulnerability and fragility of men, as a counterpart to the “strength” that men have traditionally been expected to embody within a patriarchal society.

The figure, holding a cushion and looking toward the viewer with an expression of anxiety and uncertainty, has a slender body. At the same time, the traces of stubble and body hair suggest a masculinity that is neither the muscular, conventionally “strong” male body nor the smooth female body. This ambiguity evokes a sense of uncertainty and instability surrounding the figure’s identity. Seated half-naked on a bed as if waiting for someone, the figure seems to suggest the anxiety of being seen and consumed as a sexual object.