HUSK BENNETT
Untitled (Lockdown Drawing)
2022 Season 1 - Straight White Male
HUSK BENNETT
Medium:
Digital and Printed billboards
Displayed:
UK-wide, July - August 2022
Artwork Description:
The artwork presented for The Gallery is a drawing first completed in 2021, a response to the immediate isolation of the time. I developed the dog motif over this period as the idea of a companion figure, visually reoccurring on state sanctioned walk-arounds. Interrogating the concrete schematics of pet-gendering, man’s best-friend and crazy cat person.
My response to the open call was entirely combative, harking back to the loss and complexity of queerness within Irishness, retelling the stories and beliefs of Lyra McKee, Breandán de Gallaí and living through heteronormative aggression within my own, domicile city.
Artist's Comment:
A way of engaging and reflecting on the contemporary history of queerness within Ireland.
Bio:
Husk Bennet’s practice explores celebrities, the role of an artist and the deployment of humour within art. Graduating at home in 2020, mid pandemic, led him to explore his ideas in new ways, such as performance, video, music as well as maintaining his painting & drawing practice. He likes to think about the inescapable absurdity of identity, the performativity of merely existing and how he can examine these ideas within his own experiences. He thinks Big Brother should be back on T.V. and probably run year-round, and he really enjoys Cats the movie.
Curator's Comment:
The angry dog, a metaphor for toxic masculinity, is here adopted in contemplation of queer Irish identities – mistreated and misunderstood, hopeful that a better day may soon arrive.
