“Male; Real/Ideal”
Men unite against stereotyping and stigma for a new photographic art show.
6th – 27th September 2013
The Mill Adelaide
154 Angas Street Adelaide
malerealideal.blogspot.com
A visual testament to the resilience of the modern male, “Male; Real/Ideal” speaks to a society feeling disenfranchised in an organic inability to meet standards of appearance and ability set by media and pervasive celebrity.
Brodie Paparella has joined forces with emerging artist and curator Katherine Coppock to bring to life a concept born from a grapple with self-esteem he’d seen amongst his contemporaries, colleagues and friends. Seven photographers and seven everyday men come together to explore concepts of physical prejudice and the resulting effects on men’s mental health.
‘We are realising that male self-esteem is now taking as strong a hit from media and social expectations as women have experienced the world over since the dawn of advertising.’
‘This first instalment (of five exhibitions) is a tribute to men who were born thin, and don’t fit within the muscular, stocky and athletic Australian male we’ve all been brought up to aspire to. And it’s not that we’re unhealthy: we’re not gym junkies, we don’t have drug addictions, nor do we have anorexia or bulimia. We just are how we are, and it appears that modern men are struggling to comprehend or accept that’
With her entire artistic career seeking out the inventive, innovative and subliminal, this project really excited Kat Coppock, Curator of pop-up gallery ‘The Reading Room’ and Gallery Assistant at Adelaide Festival Centre.
‘Men are similarly subjected to the same objectifying gaze that has stalked women in visual culture for most of history. Listening to my friends talk about the effects it had on them strikes home to me that acceptance of your physicality is not just a “women’s issue”, but everyone’s issue. Both genders are under the same assumption; what you are is never enough. Male;Real:Ideal is our first step in removing that. This is an opportunity to engage all kinds of men to contribute to different series over time and begin having these conversations, which is what art should be about: opening up tough issues to conversation.”
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