Inward - coming in from the outside

Art Licks Weekend

1B Window Gallery
London, 2019

Curated by Hewing Wittare for Art Licks Weekend:
“Veera Rustomji (right hand window), explores the masculine representation in film, art, literature and popular culture society. Since living in London, her practise has pushed boundaries associated with mobility whilst questioning the typical role of the powerful, privileged man whose bravery prevails them as superior. Considering the facade of tourism and how it caters to ‘fanfare masculinity’, Rustomji has painted a portrait of a man posing with a wild cat as a trophy based on photographs she discovered on social media. Often pictured in elephant and wild-cat “sanctuaries” in Thailand and South Africa these deliberately staged tableaux show the desperate strive for men to travel halfway across the world to prove their manhood. A contemporary commodity that targets the mascline pride and caters to a market saturated with vanity. The men who pay to have their portrait with a wild animal, staged in a hunter outfit complete with rifle and elaborate backdrop is both puzzling and extremely humorous to Rustomji. Painting directly onto a bedsheet and pillowcases using acrylic Rustomji makes reference to the domestic space that we often view other peoples holiday photographs.

Sitting on her bed with laptop in hand she, like most people, find themselves lost in a voyeuristic rabbit hole of fascination and curious exploration. Knowing that there is a strange power-play of role reversal present as the animals are often sedated to construct these elaborate portraits, Rustomji considers the “external body (of an animal) nearing death, alongside gender boundaries”.