Rebirth

Framed dimensions: 17.5" H x 20" W

For some men, hunting is the rite of passage that proves that they qualify for manhood. As someone who favors individuality over assimilating hegemonic masculine culture in the South, I feel that my manhood is disallowed by dominant, idealized men who judge me as a consequence of opposing the archetype that hegemonic masculinity enforces.

Instead of engaging in the traditional practice of hunting, I search for and obtain anecdotes in which hunters confess to having fearful experiences in the woods at night through my own virtual hunting practice. I identify and sympathize with these hunters who—through posting about their fearful experiences in the woods at night on hunting forums—act in opposition to the ideology that revealing any vulnerability about themselves will diminish their masculinity. I feel that my masculinity is validated by the willingness of these hunters to be vulnerable in the online communities of hunting forums and, as a result of this liminoid experience, this piece is an outward manifestation of the vicarious completion of my rite of passage to qualify for manhood.

The text is accompanied by a frame from a video that documents the “eyes” that caused the hunter to be afraid in the woods at night. This image becomes significant to me when it is reversed. This reversal creates an implied, liminal space between the space in front of and behind the picture plane. When the image is viewed in reverse, the space behind the landscape is inhabited, signifying a completion of the hunt and a crossing of threshold between liminal space and the rite of manhood.

This piece is likened to trophies, or taxidermic parts of animals that are kept after successful hunts. Hunters seemingly display these trophies to be publicly recognized for their manhood, whereas this piece affirms that fear and vulnerability deserve to be acknowledged as expressions of masculinity.

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