Action 105

This young man stripped to his underclothes is disturbingly emasculated and alluring. Aramesh’s series of Actions are sculptural-cinematic reenactments of episodes of violence and humiliation perpetrated by men upon men across conflict zones from Korea and Vietnam to Algeria and Palestine. Referencing historic representations of Christian martyrs, such as Saint Sebastian, Aramesh’s youth has a fraught presence, while the plinth is a telling reminder of the real concrete barriers that divide a contested region.