After acknowledging the elements that have had a profound effect on my art practice in previous years, it had occurred to me that it is relative to personal experiences; growing up in a single-parent, working class environment. With the absence of a strong father figure my perception of masculinity had no solid foundation on which to build. My idea of masculinity was dependant on strangers and friends.
Realising this my work focused on the men in my family i had the most interaction with in my life, my uncles. These men i have always considered 'real men'. Most of them are 'Grafters', in that they have full time manual labour jobs. Manual labour jobs have traditionally been male dominated professions therefore creating perfect breeding ground for a masculine personality.
My intentions were, for that term, to experience this work and discover if it had any effect on my perception of masculinity.
I had arranged weekly visits with my uncle in Merthyr Tydfil to talk to him about his work. Being a man of all trades and having recently become unable to work, he was more than enthusiastic about our talks. He shared with me his stories of hard times and loving his work. One of the first things he said to me on my first visit were these words:
"Build it once, build it right"
I was duly inspired by these visits and decided to embark on building and bricklaying work. Having no previous experience with these trades it was a difficult indeed to grasp the techniques and skills required to do well.
One of the main aspects of the work ,to begin with, was that in these performances i was to undergo i would ask fellow men to aid me in the construction work. This was to exercise male bonding and learn first hand how men interacted in these situations. In a few experimental performances i built small brick constructions with the assistance of any men that happened to come to view the piece. These i felt were slightly compromised due to the fact that the only men who viewed the work were Friends of mine.
Realising this my work focused on the men in my family i had the most interaction with in my life, my uncles. These men i have always considered 'real men'. Most of them are 'Grafters', in that they have full time manual labour jobs. Manual labour jobs have traditionally been male dominated professions therefore creating perfect breeding ground for a masculine personality.
My intentions were, for that term, to experience this work and discover if it had any effect on my perception of masculinity.
I had arranged weekly visits with my uncle in Merthyr Tydfil to talk to him about his work. Being a man of all trades and having recently become unable to work, he was more than enthusiastic about our talks. He shared with me his stories of hard times and loving his work. One of the first things he said to me on my first visit were these words:
"Build it once, build it right"
I was duly inspired by these visits and decided to embark on building and bricklaying work. Having no previous experience with these trades it was a difficult indeed to grasp the techniques and skills required to do well.
One of the main aspects of the work ,to begin with, was that in these performances i was to undergo i would ask fellow men to aid me in the construction work. This was to exercise male bonding and learn first hand how men interacted in these situations. In a few experimental performances i built small brick constructions with the assistance of any men that happened to come to view the piece. These i felt were slightly compromised due to the fact that the only men who viewed the work were Friends of mine.
After these experiments I realised that I had to focus my attention to creating something constructive, something that actually had a purpose. I went through several ideas and at time of assessment had settled on the idea of building a barbecue from bricks. The building would be followed by a get together of sorts where i was to cook for my fellow students and staff members. The actual performance lasted 2 days. the first day to build the structure and the second to light and cook on the barbecue.
This piece, I feel was a good finale to that area of my work. I feel about the brick laying that I had a good go at it and found out that i was not that good. I realised that this was not the way that I wanted to continue my exploration of my masculinity.
I wanted to try and return to a more traditional, formal kind of performance.
