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I was drawn to Éder Oliveira’s painting style which have a similarity to some of my paintings and commissions such as The Butterfly (2019). However, there is a deeper connection between this artist’s work and my practice, specifically with the video piece O Peixe by Jonathas De Andrade (2016) which I selected from the Maskulinitäten exhibition (2019). I am particularly interested in how Oliveira’s practice effectively contextualises the portraits they paint and how they highlight injustices. These large-scale paintings are to capture the moment young men that were arrested as a ‘plea to consider the human story behind the fearful spectre of violent male youths’ (pp12-13, Phaidon Editors, 2016). The artist empathetically situates these as murals in various meaningful locations in Belém that act as a form of advertisement creating a political statement of the injustices of why ‘men compose more than 90 percent of prison inmates’ (Biddulph, 2000). Oliveira’s practice connects with my own in highlighting certain disparities that men in particular a younger demographic have from patriarchy structures due to them being conditioned into using anger to express their emotions because of the lack of infrastructure and support systems in society which would allow men to express their emotions constructively. This by consequence has led to a increase in criminality, depression, imprisonment, and suicide thus creating a ‘paradox about emotional expression: (young men) have a deep wish to be heard yet greatly feared revealing their vulnerability’ (Samaritans, 1999). Oliveira like to De Andrade, have broadened my contextual understanding western masculinity by depicting men from Brazilian cultures which prescribes to an alternative understanding of the concept of masculinity because western masculinity is not representative of every country, region or ethnicity in the world (Rejcek, 2020) and that other societies might prescribe to different definitions of masculinity.

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References

1. Biddulph, S. 2000. Manhood. Lane Cove, Australia: Hawthorn.

2. Birkenstock, E., Cotton, M. and Dietrich, N. 2019. Maskulinitäten [Exhibition]. 01 September -24 November. Kölnischer, Bonner and Düsseldorf: Kunstverein.

3. De Andrade, J. 2016. O Peixe [Video still, 23:13 min]. At: Kölnischer, Bonner Kunstverein and Düsseldorf: Kunstverein.

4. Oliveira, É. 2015. Sem Título [Acrylic painting on wall]. At: Brazil: Belém.

5. Oliveira, É. 2015. Untitled [Acrylic painting on wall]. At: Brazil: Belém.

6. Phaidon Editors. 2016. Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting. London: Phaidon Press.

7. Rejcek, P. 2020. One size does not fit all: not all men idolize Western ideals of muscularity. [Online]. Frontiers Science News. 03 April. Available from: https://blog.frontiersin.org/2020/04/03/one-size-does-not-fit-all-not-all-men-idolize-western-ideals-of-muscularity/ [Accessed 20 March 2021].

8. Samaritans. 1999. Young men speak out, news release Samaritans [Online]. Available from: www.samaritans.org.uk/pressoffice [Accessed 20 March 2021].

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