Tomorrow marks the opening of the Barbican’s latest exhibition, Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, an in depth look at “how masculinity has been experienced, performed, coded and socially constructed” within the context of photography and film, from the 1960s up until today. The display will feature 300 works from over fifty artists, including the late Cuban performance artist Ana Mendieta. Mendieta dedicated her curtailed career to examining ideas surrounding death, cultural displacement, the female body, and transformation—as per this stirring 1970s work which saw her adopt a tufty beard to explore the gendered implications of hair and its effect on one’s appearance and perceived identity.
