This series is composed of four paintings. Each painting features a different character who takes the central role in their own frame; together, they form a unified narrative.

 

• Top left: Estrogens’ Picnic – Ennis

• Bottom left: Estrogens’ Picnic – Rocky

• Top right: Estrogens’ Picnic – Bruce

• Bottom right: Estrogens’ Picnic – Jack

 

 

This work portrays a picnic gathering of men with varying temperaments - a kind of activity that is often culturally coded as soft, intimate, and feminine. Traditionally, such idyllic or pastoral picnic scenes -like Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe- are almost always accompanied by the presence of women. But in this work, women are deliberately absent.

 

The title Estrogens’ Picnic reflects a shift - traditionally, masculinity is defined through its opposition to femininity. Borrowing from Jacques Derrida’s concept of différance, the work explores “man” as a fluid, unfixable linguistic signifier, always dependent on the difference from an “other” in order to be legible.

 

In the absence of women, the men in the scene observe and reflect one another. Who, then, is the “real man”? This piece explores the diverse expressions of the male body and personality - from hyper-masculine to delicate and vulnerable, from reserved to flamboyant.

 

This is not merely a critique of toxic masculinity, but also a question: Can men exist freely without having to resist or suppress their feminine traits? In this picnic, where gender boundaries blur and intimacy and ambiguity reign, Estrogens’ Picnic attempts to create a softer, more expansive space for thinking about what it means to be a man.