2017 Finalists

Artist statement: I aim to explore how ritual and role-play are shaped by cathartic desires of our society. I believe in exploring and inhabiting archetypes as an act of catharsis and self-analyses. This is particularly prevalent in my photography where the participants ‘dress up’ as an archetype to allow themselves to live out that facet of their personality.

With particular interest in toxic masculinity and queer identity, I aim to attend to the multiple and conflicted readings of the body and their translation into the social roles they inhabit. Investigating the male body in particular as both violent and intimate, playful but harsh, erotic but confrontational. I hope to gain a better understanding of the limitless possibilities of gender roles and identities.

davidcharlescollins.com