rip-off by ben millar cole | photography

The costumes are all wrong. They have to be discarded. We have to start out naked again and go from there – Wallace Shawn It is a dangerous thing to play the role of oneself, a small proposition within a broad constellation of identities that exist within.

Enter a character caught within the tedious confines of the corporate confederacy, wanting to perform a different freedom. A puritanical, prize-fighting, gold-toothed employee gone gonzo. The paradoxes flourish.

We follow a serial journey set within the stark backdrop of render, concrete, steel and brick. Binaries of black and white take form.

Contracting and releasing, rejecting and acquiescing, she contorts to disrobe.

Her desire to break the angularity of the working day’s monotony is met with inelegant gestural struggle.

Don’t we all feel a bit – claustrophobic? Let’s play more.

Squish, jerk, scrape, snag, rip-off.

Ben Millar Cole is a photographer based between Glasgow and London. His artistic practice spans across portraiture, social documentary, constructed and studio-based genres. He seeks to find and create play and humour in the everyday. His most recent series, Rip-Off, is a psychosocial performance exploring identity, featuring a singular character - a puritanical, prize-fighting, gold-toothed employee gone gonzo.