The What Does He Need? public poster project presents a range of viewpoints on the needs of men and boys in different scenarios and at different stages of life. These short texts are responses to the central question ‘What Does He Need?’ and were gathered from conversations with adults and young people. The presentation of contrasting viewpoints is intended to provoke a public dialogue around the subject of masculinity.

This text-based work was launched in December 2020 in the windows of The LAB gallery. In May 2021, the texts were displayed on billboards in three new locations in Dublin city; Saint Mary’s Place (Dublin 1), Church Street (Dublin 7) and Dolphin’s Barn (Dublin 8). These posters included a QR code which linked directly to the What Does He Need? audio piece. Following a residency in the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2021, a new collection of texts were developed from a series of workshops with diverse groups of adults and young people. These texts were presented from March-May ’22 in the central courtyard of the museum.

Support

The public poster project was developed in 2020, by Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers, through a partnership with The LAB gallery, and funding from an Arts Council Arts Participation Project Award. The development stage of this work was supported via an invited residency for Fiona Whelan at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and a Brokentalkers residency supported through Create/Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP) and ‘…the lives we live’ Grangegorman Public Art in 2019. In 2021, Fiona Whelan and Brokentalkers returned for a residency in IMMA, supported by the Arts Council, which led to the development of another iteration at the museum in 2022.