Action Figure Cutouts by Lawrence Getubig
I used to play with toy action figures growing up in Asia. Seldom identifying as the hero in my fantasy, I instead projected myself as either an enamored ingénue like in romance comics, as a loyal adoring sidekick, or as the cohort that would get into trouble but eventually rescued by the hero. Re-examining the fantasy genres of my childhood, I realize my hero and object of desire has ubiquitously been the white male. Now conscious of the way I identified myself in those escapist realism as a kid, I am questioning how those behaviours live on with me in the real world, as an adult, queer, Filipino-American male. Reliving those narratives of make believe, I make black cardboard cutouts of myself, including the superheroes and lead characters of my childhood comics, cartoons and movies. I arrange and photograph them in home made sets. These photographs are helping me sort out my complex and often confusing attitudes towards the white male as my object of desire and racial other. My use of silhouettes is an attempt to mute down the visual perception of racial otherness between him and me.
Lawrence Getubig lives and works in Washington, DC.
To view more of Lawrence's work, please visit his website.
