Heather Allen
As a child in the 50’s and 60’s I was brought up with the expectation that my ideal man (‘the right man for me’) would one day appear and sweep me off into a happy future. As he never arrived I can only assume that he got lost on the way…
Working on this project I’ve had to think about him again, and my thoughts go this way; I see the ideal man as a construct, the projected sum of society’s needs at any given time. BUT there are ideal moments for different reasons with different people (men and women). I like this idea much more; it opens things up. My work for this project is about ‘moments’ which could in a way be ideal. My self-portrait figures sometimes look inwards, deep in thought, sometimes they look outwards, playful, curious or anxious, sometimes they interact with each other – we all do that. Their actions are not ‘completed’, they are still open about what to do, which direction to take, and this could be exactly the right moment for the ideal decision…
male self-portrait figures
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