The work: Hugo Fraser, Confection 5, Confection series, 2022. Duratrans film on LED lightbox, 119 x 84cm. Courtesy: the artist.
The vulnerable symbolism of sexuality and identity explored in Confection 5 questions the capitalist marketing of queerness. The attention grasped by the jewellery’s radiation of light predominates the gold figure, subjecting the body to its material value. Supported by the lack of facial features, the identity is stripped and presents a singular aesthetic quality of the dynamic pose. Hugo Fraser has created a confronting piece, inviting the discourse of whether Queerness is something you
can buy.
Anna Prifti, Gallery Director, West End Art Space, Melbourne
Fraser’s Confection 5 is a striking and thought-provoking work that explores the complex relationship between advertising and the queer body. In Confection 5, Fraser appropriates the visual language of advertising to imitate the commoditisation of identity inherent in consumer culture. The central figure in the work mimics the product it promotes, embodying through physicality a marketable non-identity reduced to currency in its lurid, glossy presentation. Fraser’s use of their own body as both subject and object is particularly poignant, as they render their own flesh and physical expression to better understand the innate, acquired, or performed aspects of identity. This creates a powerful sense of intimacy and vulnerability in the work, which is further amplified by the use of vivid colours that evoke both desire and revulsion.
Grace Alty, Curator, ARTIS GALLERY, Auckland