Topple

Starting with a decennial school photo, Simo Tse revisited his own boyhood experience of being a boarding school pupil at a unisex institution. Ritualistic and hormonal, the rite of passage for the artist is framed within the legacy of colonial subjects, and the narrative of man-versus-wild masculinity. By reframing the photo, the artist produced a ‘reverse’ gaze back upon himself, a vantage point which peeps through the facade of uniformity. At first glance, the singular idea of masculinity is hyper-performative but unattainable while being held at close proximity. The series consists of still images, videos and an installation.