Rintangan showcases a series of drawings by Haffendi, conceived during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK . During this time of isolation, he contemplated the physical, mental, emotional and economic health of the individual and the state. He executed this growing obsession with the concept of physical and metaphorical strength into this series as a coping mechanism towards the pandemic’s bleak uncertainty. He ties the sport of bodybuilding with the act of control over one’s physical capabilities. He considers that the sport allows one to understand and push their physical limitation through corporeal efforts to achieve conventional male beauty. These images were painted onto paper and canvas boards. The figures were made of a mixture of paint, adhesive and sand, squeezed out from ketchup bottles to create the elaborate, bulbous outlines, emphasizing masculine forms. Haffendi then had the composition in cropped frames, suggesting screenshot images, to perceive the focal intent of the viewer’s gaze.
