Shaun Leonardo

Bull in the Ring

Shaun Leonardo uses his own body to communicate and portray imagery. In his film Bull in the Ring, hyper-masculine images of physicality are staged at the expense of his own physical comfort. The function of the male body has long been a signifier of self-worth and the body affirms and legitimizes feelings of control and agency over environment. In this sense Shaun “El C.” Leonardo performs two very distinct actions at once. On the one hand, he uses performance as an avenue for discussion of how men have internalized culture’s preconceived notions of how men should act and appear. And on the other hand, Leonardo’s work calls our attention to these spectacles not for their immediate content but rather as symbols of our cultural acceptance of an arbitrary and potentially irrational masculine norm.