Abstract
Image dominant cultural coding plays an important role in how we perceive culture. This exists in many areas including, but not limited to advertising, education, news, and popular art, etc. I would argue that the majority of artworks about gay leather culture have focused solely on the “in scene/erotic” aspects of the culture, over the “out of scene” lives of the people participating. The result of which is an almost singular viewpoint. The SkiNZ project responds to this issue with a desire to expand knowledge and discourse of this minority sub culture. My question therefore is “how can I create images that expand our knowledge in the area of gay leather culture and create new discourse." SkiNZ: "Patience" is my latest response. It provides a visual fusion of the everyday lives of gay New Zealand leathermen, in and out of character. The resulting image portrays the duality of their lives, and in doing so creates a new visual coding that expands our understanding by painting visual traces of truth gathered from personal photoshoots and interviews.
