Artist 38
Alexander Glass Sculptural Installations
Alexander Glass is a sculptor and installation artist, living and working in London.
Through his sculptural installations, Alexander Glass explores the separation between images and reality in spaces commonly associated with the potent male body. In scenarios which first appear seductive and idyllic, Glass reveals their implied horrific potential with traces of violence and catastrophe.
This is an exploration of the separation between image and fantasy in spaces commonly associated with aspirational maleness. He does this by recreating scenes or locations that are commonly used fetishise the male body, such as swimming pools, gyms and locker rooms, and, most recently, high-rise flats. Due to our expectations of men, these spaces symbolise strength and success, but many LGBTQ people will remember them places where they felt like outsiders.
The frequently used spaces legitimize scenarios for the cinematic lens to objectify the male body. Whilst these spaces symbolise physical strength and beauty, they also leave the subject exposed within their sterility; a sterility which is precarious and constantly vulnerable to corruption through the arrival of an abject material.
Glass’ work explores the in between erotic and horrific through re-presentation of common cinematic tropes of seduction and the physical imagery that is inseparable from them.
"My work is a discussion of masculinity and its complicated relationship to desire." Glass explains. "This includes an engagement with ideas of the ideal body, aspirational living and its imagery."
The power of installation is how immersed you become in the space. The down side is it’s difficult to gauge that immersion from a photo. Glass’s focus on taking traditionally masculine spaces and subvert them with the undertone of what the spaces can be is very powerful in its subtly.
Comments