Steel Town Disciples is a series of twelve constructed
still life images offering tactile denim sculptures painted in light. In each
still life image, totems of the ‘authentic’ man are stitched and shrouded using
heavily gendered modes of craft. Chainsaws, working boots and saddles, trivial
symbols of masculinity, are coated in denim and bound with thread against its
hard form. The denim materials origin as a rugged and durable fabric bearing
the hard labour of American cowboys, rebelling against authority in the 1950s
before outfitting the working class heroes of Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy
Barnes is referenced and repositioned in a camping of popular notions of manhood.
This
tactile and tough material quality of denim is transformed and repositioned in
to a new still life context. Here, the assumed power of masculine iconography
and symbolism are dissolved into eroticism and conflated with the romantic and
delicate.
Traditional
still life representations of ripened fruit are inserted alongside these
heavily constructed sculptures, contrasting their rigid form and fetishising the
nature of the objects. Alternate elements of cream and bound rope aim to
further intimate at an erotic exchange shifting the power and status of
masculine ownership further away from the initial subject.
This
series of work playfully interrogates the construction and performance of
normative and dominant masculinities and their iconography and in doing so,
aims to contest the authority of prevailing masculinities and their commonplace
representations.
The Helmet (2011)
The Gloves (2011)
The Axe (2011)
The Chainsaw (2011)
The Saddle (2011)
The Pads (2011)
The Gun (2011)
The Funnel (2011)
The Weights (2011)
The Boots (2011)
The Cans (2011)Found on www.behance.netThank you
No comments:
Post a Comment