Liam Benson

He Looks Just Like His Mother

2012, 2 min 03 sec

He Looks Just Like His Mother is a moving video portrait of grief. Inverting the machismo seen in O’Brien’s Untitled (Clean Skin), BENSON adopts a tiara, a crown of curls and bust as seen on the coin portrait of young Queen Elizabeth II that is found on Australian currency.  The artist and subject has appropriated this image and subverted the crown jewels to feature Australian motifs of Kangaroos and wild brumbies. Reciting dialogue in an emotional feminine voice and adopted Scottish accent, a bereaved BENSON appears in female guise and in tears, challenging masculine decorum and resonating the enduring human predicament.

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