Gabo's Astronaut

 

Gabo - Astronaut

I've always found the wide, round collars of astronaut outfits rather sexy, highlighting as they do the neck curves and short hair of these modern day adventurers. Gabo dresses his make-believe voyager in the reverse combination - helmet, gloves and very little else! These two viewpoints in their different ways both express the contrast between the protective, cloaking qualities of the uniform and the vulnerability of the man inside when operating in deep space.

If you like men you probably find the inaccessibility of the helmet a bit off-putting and it reminds me rather uncomfortably of that Star Trek scene in 'The Wrath Of Khan' where it becomes an improvised cage that the spaceman's head has to share with an eel-like parasite which tunnels into his ear and takes control of his brain. Ugh!

At the other extreme, this style of minimalised dress is typically used by strippers to theme their performances with an iconic, macho identity such as a cop, soldier or workman, using trademark garb that can be kept on as the disrobement proceeds. I can't say I've ever seen an astronaut stripper though. This technique also used to be a titillating feature of underwear advertising in the days when the sight of men in their underpants was slightly shocking (actually it still is in real life, but the media is a world all it's own that makes little effort to reflect the lives of real people these days)

Gabo is an artist who specialises in fan art, recasting male models as idealised images and dressing them up as though they were dolls like Action Men, GI Joes or Barbie's Ken. I like his clean, crisp style which keeps the images in respectable territory. The real life model upon whom this image is based is the oddly named Ardilla Genocida. There's more examples of Gabo Art at my blog for adults.

 More at Gabo Art at Twitter, Gabo Art at Deviant Art