In my series Hold Me Tight, I explore moments of vulnerability and intimacy between my husband and two teenage sons, often while on family vacations in nature. A kind of sensory aliveness takes hold and I see their changing bodies, in adolescence and midlife, register so much feeling. The sculptural quality of their forms reminds me of early ideas of classical beauty, and sensual representations of manhood in Ancient Greek myth. Their physical interactions too, distilled in a photograph, reveal heightened tensions of closeness that are familiar scenes throughout the history of Western art, yet speak to a resonance I might not otherwise see in daily life. Inspired by Western art, psychology, and myth, I explore the question of whether there exists an inherently masculine experience and reflect on the biases of our own cultural moment of narrowly defined readings of boys and men. An epic love story emerges between fathers, sons, and brothers which feels like unexplored territory in a traditionally homophobic American landscape.

Allison Plass

Allison Plass

SVA I3 Lecture: On Boys and Vulnerability