Toxic masculinity - Art - Greyson Perry - King of Nowhere

King of Nowhere

I believe it is important to look at the way which artists visually respond to their investigations as it is what I am trying to do in this module, evaluate and gain an understanding of a modern day issue and create a visual outcome response to deal with such. 

In response to his series that explored the ideas of masculinity, Grayson Perry created a piece of artwork in response to visualise what he had learnt to the community he became a part of for that short period of time. 

This piece he titled 'King of Nowhere' it is an African statue which is traditionally used to represent ways of religious idealism and worship, the way in which the young men in the video that he met idealised what they thought to be masculine ideals they wanted to be part of. The weapons represent the different crimes and lifestyles trying to follow this could force someone to fall into, the caps and logos become the young man's armour, armour for the battle to be 'top dog'. What is here described as modern-day armour also shows a representation of the way in which a man can not be seen to be vulnerable in society without being weak and to protect themselves from the sight of being the week they are therefore hiding behind violent, crimes and acts. The items used within this are also representative of the way in which a life doing such things to secure a feeling of masculinity can lead to possible prison sentences and end up harming the individual themselves rather than getting the satisfaction they are looking for. 

Tapestry of Digmoor

Here Perry has created a graphically based outcome in which he has printed a map of an area which is affected heavily by male rivalry, which was featured in the episode and explored the need for territory protection and its link to masculinity, which is comprised by symbolism and visuals which are found within the areas. 

The visualisation here of the way masculinity affects the communities is put into the simplest of forms. Blood directly linking to the violent acts, which have no reasoning behind them other than the people involved feeling as if they were 'protecting' their area by causing violence. The most masculine of visuals predominantly used on the piece is the phallic symbol, the most direct way that Perry found young men were 'marking their territory' with; by actually graffitiing the areas.

The visuals used in both of these pieces represent the way that males are trying to use visual language and be influenced in their actions, to represent what they see to be masculine; inforced by societies views and normalised everyday subliminal messages.