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There are relevant connections between Tala Madani’s practice and my own who articulates a ‘critiquing male power cliques’ (Nottingham Contemporary, 2014), political authority and gender via whimsical figures as seen in The Dance (2015) (Figure 1). Despite the fact that Madini distinctively paints a ‘humorous discourse’ (Saatchi Gallery, n.d.) on sexuality, I intend to not use humour as a vessel to address issues on masculinity in 2021 because I believe in the context of my current practice it creates a lack of understanding between the art and the audience. Instead, I aim to incorporate Madini’s influence to express a reversal on stereotypical gender roles to question male objectification.

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In addition to Madini, Adam Christensen demonstrates the idea of using text as a means of confession interested me, so I decided to use it as an expression of male abuse, an aspect of masculinity often overlooked in western society which conditions those who identify as male to suffer in silence (Rees, 2019). This connects to the practice of Adam Christensen who creates a juxtaposition between humour and tragedy for example with Shitty Heartbreaker (2018) (Figure 2). A strength to this practice, as Nathaniel Budzinski argues, is how this ‘matter-of-factly (artwork) details moments of violence and sex’ in order to relay the artists ‘narratives (which) are mostly confessional’ (2018). Shitty Heartbreaker makes me question why it is semi-autobiographical? Is this use of humour a form of protection? How else could this work be experienced, and would this affect the reading of the work?  

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References

1. Budzinski, N. 2018. Adam Christensen: ‘I’ve Always Known How to Make People Laugh’. Frieze. [Online]. 12 September. Available from: https://www.frieze.com/article/adam-christensen-ive-always-known-how-make-people-laugh [Accessed 28 January 2021].

2. Christensen, A. 2018. Shitty Heartbreaker [Performance and Installation]. At Copenhagen: Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Art.

3. Madani, T, 2015. The Dance [Oil on linen, 16 x 23 x 1 ⅛ inch]. At Los Angeles: David Kordansky Gallery.

4. Nottingham Contemporary. 2014. Tala Madani. [Online]. Available from: https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/tala-madani/ [Accessed 28 January 2021].

5. Rees, J. 2019. Male domestic abuse victims 'suffering in silence'. BBC. [Online]. 01 March. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47252756 [Accessed 28 January 2021].

6. Saatchi Gallery. [n.d.]. Tala Madani. [Online]. Available from: https://saatchigallery.com/artist/tala_madani [Accessed 28 January 2021].

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