In Some Confused Men, opening at Linden Projects Space on 8 May 2025, artist and educator Kristian Häggblom presents a timely meditation on masculinity, uncertainty, and the psychic weight of living through collapse. This new photographic series — rich in contradiction, cinematic form, and poetic observation — marks a powerful continuation of Häggblom’s long-standing interest in site, memory, and the existential residue of everyday life.
Known for his subtle, conceptually-driven photographic investigations across Japan and Australia, Häggblom has long explored how people navigate their surroundings, both physically and psychologically. In Some Confused Men, he turns the lens inward, embedding himself within the work not just as author but as subject — a man among other men, moving uncertainly through a disorienting world.
Framed by what Häggblom describes as “chaotic times” — political instability, environmental breakdown, economic anxiety, and the eerie return of Trump-era ideologies — the series quietly dismantles conventional masculine stoicism. These men, including Häggblom himself, do not project certainty or control. Instead, they exhibit something rarer and more urgent: confusion, vulnerability, and a search for meaning amid societal noise.
The project unfolds across two interwoven narrative threads. The first is a quasi-documentary sequence of a journey to retrieve a broken-down car with a friend. Photographed in a dynamic, cinema-inspired horizontal scroll format, these images emulate the fragmented perception of lived experience — fast, disjointed, and unresolved. The second thread is a slower, large-format photographic pilgrimage to the grave of Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu, whose restrained visual language and existential themes deeply inform Häggblom’s work.
This visual duality — between momentum and stillness, chaos and contemplation — lies at the heart of Some Confused Men. It mirrors the shifting rhythms of daily life, where clarity is fleeting and moments of reflection emerge amid the blur. The exhibition does not seek resolution. Instead, it welcomes ambiguity and invites viewers to sit with discomfort, to find meaning in fragments.
A key image in the exhibition, Nihon: Hole in a Fence (2006), quietly encapsulates the ethos of the project. A weathered turquoise chain-link fence, its center punctured by a conspicuous hole, stands before a grassy slope. It’s an image about rupture — or perhaps possibility. As with much of Häggblom’s work, meaning is not prescribed but suggested, offering space for contemplation.
As an educator, Häggblom has long advocated for slowness, patience, and openness in both practice and pedagogy. His photographic work models this ethic: it resists spectacle, instead drawing viewers in through subtle details and poetic resonances. Some Confused Men is deeply personal, yet it speaks to collective experiences of being unmoored — of seeking footholds in a world where the ground itself seems to shift beneath us.
Exhibition Details
Opening Night: Thursday 8 May 2025, 6–8 PM
Venue: Linden Projects Space, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda, Victoria.
Exhibition Dates: 8 May – 8 June 2025
More Info / RSVP: Visit the Linden Projects Space website or social media channels.
