Virilit-HE

Virilit-HE ZoĂŤ Charlton

Nick Clifford Simko

Lisa Dillin

Tim Doud

Joseph Faura

Annette Isham

Camden Place

Danny Waskiewicz

Zac Willis

THE SILBER ART GALLERY Goucher College Athenaeum

Virilit-HE

“ I’m very empathic

to the construction of masculinity within our culture and how we build these identities up.

Catherine Opie, American artist

In the art exhibition Virilit-HE, nine artists—Zoë Charlton, Nick Clifford Simko, Lisa Dillin, Tim Doud, Joseph Faura, Annette Isham, Camden Place, Danny Waskiewicz, and Zac Willis— explore various aspects of masculinity. The diverse works in this exhibition focus on male identity—from lessons learned in youth to stereotypical male traits and the desire to buck against them. In researching the evolution of gender roles in our society, I have learned a lot. Most notably I’ve gained a deeper understanding of masculinity, its hardships, and the oftentimes debilitating expectations our young men encounter.

Many works in this exhibition focus on the significant role the mass media play in shaping these expectations. From a young age, boys are taught how to be men, but often not in the most constructive manner. Terms such as “stop crying,” “grow some balls,” and “be a man” are a few examples of what our culture deems appropriate examples of what constitutes masculinity.

While women’s gender roles continue to expand, including roles stereotypically seen as masculine, ideas about masculinity seem to remain stagnant. Dominance, strength, and aggression remain the leading characteristics associated with masculinity, therefore neglecting the very important emotional needs of men: vulnerability, compassion, and self-worth. It’s refreshing to see many artists, both male and female, working to bring these struggles to light. They offer a platform where these issues can be discussed and analyzed, where a deeper understanding can emerge, and where change can occur. Through video, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and photography, these artists give the viewer a glimpse, from their perspective, of what it means to be male within our current social climate.

— Laura Amussen, Curator

Zoë Charlton

Zoë Charlton advertised online for models with athletic bodies. When she met them, she found it difficult to define their substance based on how they looked, and she was surprised by how much they disclosed about themselves.

As nude models—stripped of typical symbols of wealth, class, and personal interests—they did not embody strength or visually express personal affinities. She drew them larger than life, with symbolic enhancements, things representing what they shared with her— souvenirs of their valor, their adventurous spirit, and expressions of cultural tokenism.

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Untitled 11 (from Paladins and Tourists series), 2010 graphite and acrylic on paper 93” x 69” (framed)

Nick Clifford Simko

Still Life with Ladder, 2012 archival inkjet print on Coldpress Natural Paper 13� x 19�

Nick Clifford Simko uses photography in his studio because of its capacity to document reality and construct imaginary worlds of allegory and metaphor. In his photo series he examines the complicated relationship between real and ideal male bodies. Through the juxtaposition of the human form, academic copies of ancient sculptures, and toy action figures, his photographs explore and personify the forces that shape male gender identity. His background in art history, paired with his interest in performance, contextualizes these images as both a challenge to cultural convention and an exercise in self-definition.

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Lisa Dillin

Lisa Dillin highlights man’s primitive roots through the spectacle of body hair. Her display of body hair is used to send a message of quiet rebellion against the constraints of the contemporary societal construct—a construct that seems less useful and sustainable since the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Under the circumstances, one might wonder if survival methods such as hunting and gathering would prove to be more useful than engaging in the fierce competition for jobs at a time when unemployment is at its peak.

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Untitled Ad for Roar Design, 2009 digital C-print, face mounted to plexiglass 20” x 30”

Tim Doud

LevelUp@Scruff, 2014 oil on linen 40” x 40”

The models in Tim Doud’s series are all gay men he met on male meeting sites or apps. There are as many different versions of masculinity as there are men, and each model has his own way of juggling social pressure to conform. Straight men have their own versions as well. The models in this series forge their versions of manhood through an assemblage of props, forces, attitudes, and sometimes even their bodies. The models’ presentations are always an explanation, beginning with the profile names they pick and the pictures they choose to represent themselves.

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Joseph Faura

Taken from an online collection of early-20thcentury glass plates, Joseph Faura’s digital montages explore the restricted world of male homosocial environments. The images themselves are trying to explore a male-male desire that homosocial environments of the time—such as sports, boarding schools, universities, the military, and even the Boy Scouts—seemed to welcome. Photographs of young men in athletic or leisurely poses are superimposed on desolate backgrounds. Their poses reflect a sense of naiveté about their seeming sexuality in front of the camera. Men’s same-sex bonds, and the desire they produce, can take many forms, and there is a continuum between homosocial and homosexual. This unknowing, or at least inactive desire, is the dynamic.

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Dance with Me, 2009 digital C-print, polymer film 15” x 12”

Camden Place

Ace and I, 2013 digital print, frame 14� x 17�

Camden Place has always been fascinated by the way people borrow and build their identities from the things that surround them. People sample and adopt myriad tropes from persons both real and represented. His work strives to draw attention to this exchange between designed characters and personal sense of identity by focusing on the ways these figures have influenced their own visions of self. By exaggerating or infiltrating various elements of his personal life that have been touched by popular media, Place wants his viewers’ attention to be pushed toward the ways they have each incorporated and interacted with popular media in their daily lives. Annette Isham collaborated with Place for this exhibit.

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Danny Waskiewicz

Photographer and designer Danny Waskiewicz’s work focuses on the interaction of man and landscape. His images and video shift perspectives on where and when they occur, blending analog and digital techniques. Counting Sheep with the King of Cool explores the romanticism of the idealized models of his youth.

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Counting Sheep with The King of Cool, 2013 Silver Gelatin Print 18” x 24”

Zac Willis

At-At Walker Trophy, 2012 digital print 44” x 94”

Zac Willis’ work is autobiographical in excess, particularly in documentation. He has an obsession with collecting personal objects, ideas, and experiences—their physical display is not only a showcase of his identity, but also of the nature of American capitalist culture and its effect on his identity as a member of the art community and as an individual. With his work, he hopes to explore and challenge the concept of American consumerism and art collection as an aspect of that culture.

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Virilit-HE Zoë Charlton Nick Clifford Simko Lisa Dillin Tim Doud Joseph Faura

Annette Isham Camden Place Danny Waskiewicz Zac Willis

April 1 – May 4, 2014 ARTISTS’ RECEPTION

Friday, April 4, 2014, 6-9 p.m.

(Artists’ talk at 7:30 p.m.)

THE SILBER GALLERY

Goucher College Athenaeum DIRECTIONS

Baltimore Beltway, I-695, to exit 27A. Make first left onto campus.

GALLERY HOURS 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tuesday – Sunday 410-337-6477

The Silber Gallery program is funded with the assistance of grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Baltimore County Commission on the Arts and Sciences.

www.goucher.edu/silber

14364-2778 03/14

The exhibit is free and open to the public.