Man Escaped

‘Man Escaped’ is an installation that proposes a fictional service to offer respite from the exploits of contemporary masculinity.  In today’s society, the ‘detoxification’ of masculinity is a necessary process, and the projection of undeserved privilege has caused a residual hangover of issues with little sympathy.  The road trip from brawn to brains has been a turbulent one, and for some like sociologist David Morgan, have left men in a state of ‘cultural redundancy’.  The male malaise and the exploration of masculinity has resulted in the production of an assemblage of animated sculptural objects that, through their offbeat humour, attempts to engage rather than directly provoke. These objects take the form of an obscure travelling resource designed to provide services that superficially act on the body of the masculine subject.  To treat problematic woes and adjust emotional mileage. A hybrid of luxury spa and personal physical self-improvement procedures are subverted to reflect the fictional narrative. ’Ginger John’, a deflated party prop sex doll with a set of articulating golf ball/ testicles that dip in and out of a cup of tea presents as a centrepiece of for the installation, functioning as a signpost of sorts to attract the confused visitor. A golf buggy has been converted to a mini recreational vehicle. This vehicle houses all the devices and implements to carry out the necessary procedures. Familiar DIY tools gain new functions; a jigsaw fitted with another set of golfball testicles is designed to massage/pummel masculinity back into the body; an assemblage of parts, forms a BBQ to heat up rocks for a hot stone massage. The traditional domestic domains of masculine activity are raided for resources that can be reused and reformed to expose, relearn and invigorate healthier ways of being ‘man’.