Studio2:Secondary Research: 2 artists connected to your work

For this research artist assignment, I will have to find 2 artists’ work that inspired me for my project. Before going into the details of the artists’ research. I want to talk about what I have done for the Studio and Seminar class. For the Seminar class, my topic is about “The lack of masculinity misconception towards Asian-American males due to the differences within the concept of stereotypes.” For my studio class, I wanted to express my idea for my research topic through a form of photographic for my Studio portion of my topic. I would like to shoot a series of photos that express the wrongful thoughts of the misconception toward Asian-Americans’ perception of a lack of masculinity by utilizing different prompts and creating various signifiers within each photograph to showcase my ideas.

The first artist that inspired me is Robert Mapplethorpe.

“The slave” (1974).

“Thomas”(1987).

“Ken Moody”(1983).

“Ken and Tyler” (1985).

During the 1980s, when Robert Mapplethorpe took those photographs. It was during the time period where the “explosion of punk and gay cultures” happened (Matthew Drutt). Most of his work was trying to fight the wrongful idea of the male and female nude models. Where traditionally, the nude models and nude sculptures were commonly females. But within Robert’s work, the nude models were males instead of females. And the male models were posing various feminine poses in nudes showing the flexibility and tenderness of the male human body could also present. In his work I see him using his work to challenge the traditional feminized role of the nude female model. I can see his straightforward action of showing his protest against the traditional value of the nude female model. Not only the changing of the gender of the model but also the body language and postures of the nude male model. Which they were showing the posture being soft and tender instead of trying to show a strong and tough male role.

I also wanted to do something that is protesting against the traditional value towards the perception of Asian-Americans’ masculinity stereotypes within Western culture. I also wanted to focus on my model’s body posture and also use some prompts to showcase the wrongful of the western stereotypes that were being projected on the Asian-American masculinity. For example, using the shadow of certain items such as hair brushes with a pose strong power pose to show the feminine stereotypes does not mean the guys are lack of manhood. Or a shadow of a hammer with a soft/tender pose to show that the manhood could also exist within a man who is posing a feminine pose.

The second artist, Sunil Gupta.
Sunil Gupta, Untitled #22 from the series Christopher Street, 1976
Untitled #22 from the series Christopher Street, 1976

I was also inspired by his model’s posture and the dress code of the model. I also wanted to utilize the clothes and hairstyles to enhance the ideas of diversities between western stereotypes and Asian stereotypes towards Asian-American male. I have the idea of doing henna tattoos on my model to fulfill the western masculinity stereotypes towards man. But at the same time posing a feminine pose to create a contrast between the tattoos and the pose.

*Henna tattoo: Henna has been used for more than 5,000 years to dye skin, hair, fingernails, and even fabrics in Pakistan, India, Africa, and the Middle East. The act of giving intricate henna tattoos is called Mehndi and is traditionally only done on women — never men.
https://theanthrotorian.com/culture/2013/7/27/traditional-henna-tattoos

I want to create a henna tattoo in a manly style. Such as David Beckham.

Yuzzi

Studio2:Secondary Research: 2 artists connected to your work

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