IG: @kingraat

ryerspann.com

Blue Spring

Blue Spring is an examination of how masculinity functions at the militarily structured and male dominated Maine Maritime Academy. I seek to answer questions related to how tenderness, violence, and ritual function in this community and how certain ideas can be encouraged and reproduced. With a focus on the body as a vessel of information, I attempt to use it to learn how it can communicate identity, power, vulnerability, and belonging in a space that may not always value those ideas.

While working through this space, I use it as a mirror reflecting my own desires, fears, and unanswered questions about masculinity, growth, and belonging. By placing images of posed, thought out scenes next to happenchance snapshots, this deepens the divide between readings and forces the work into a realm where the relationship between performance and evidence becomes intertwined.

Bio

Ryer Spann was likely conceived sometime between August 12th and August 25th. 9 months later, he was briefly the youngest person in the world. He makes work that focuses on communities and the body as a way to deeper understand peoples need for companionship, love, and connection. Ryer currently lives in Portland, ME, and is the father of two cats, Whisk and Spatula. Despite their names, he thinks it is unsanitary for them to be used as utensils.