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Nightingale Gallery Director |
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Cory Peekeclick image to enlarge
A great deal of research and artwork has been done on the subject of the objectification of the female form in art. However, very little attention has been paid to the objectification and idealization of male beauty in art and visual culture. From the classical Greek canon of body proportions, through Dr. William Herbert Sheldon’s Varieties of Human Physiques published in the 1960’s, to the present day’s conception of the “metro-sexual” we have seen a cultural standard put forth by society to define not only ideas of masculinity, but the ideal masculine form. Over the last several years I have explored social and cultural conceptions of sexual identity in my work. Working in mixed media-collage I have utilized a large variety of found images of men, appropriated from advertising, erotica, health/medical texts, sex manuals, and abandoned snapshot photography. Despite the fact that the images come from a variety of time periods and places, a definite ideal of the male form emerges from the imagery especially as related to the male nude. In using such images in my work I have been guilty of perpetuating this standardized ideal, an ideal that has hindered my own self-expression. As a gay man who is overweight and hirsute I do not fit the mold of what gay men generally consider beautiful nor do I conform to the larger society’s stereotype of the masculine ideal. I have begun to question how much of ones identity as a man is wrapped up their opinion of their bodily form. With my latest series of wall collages I have begun juxtaposing idealized and often eroticized male forms with nude images of a series of ordinary men who were brave enough to bare their bodies and collaborate with me. These men do not fit the standard mold of the ideal male. Their physical forms are far from the perfect photo-shopped, gym-sculpted, big-dicked Adonis’ of contemporary and even a fair amount of classical representation. They are real men; they are what men look like in all their variety of visual “flaws” and natural beauty. By juxtaposing these men in a sort of ghostlike manner against the more idealized images of men I am asking viewers to contemplate their conception of male beauty and how it relates to physical manifestations. Viewers are confronted with the reality of the naked male in relation to the ideal nude. Hopefully these works encourage questions about visual representations of masculinity and how those depictions influence the way we view and interact with men who do not measure up to society’s ideal of physical beauty. Also, how is our reaction to these men’s naked form different when we are confronted with them in a public venue? These works are both a continuation of my investigation of the construction of identity and a new direction of research that is both cultural and personal. They are a tentative first step to exploring the complex and often suppressed relationship of men to their physical form.
Conrad Wilde Gallery Information Nightingale Gallery Information
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| Eastern Oregon University Art Department | ||||
