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Looking at him series (solo exhibition), 2006

 

 

Exhibited at Emerge Art Space – Highgate, WA.  18 Oct – 10 Nov 2006

 

 

Looking at him is an investigation into masculinity.  Mel Dare discusses masculinity with 5 male friends; asking how they would like theirs to be portrayed.  The paintings are the results.

 

When I began painting for this exhibition I had a very specific goal in mind. I have been interested in constructions of masculinity for a while, and wanted to paint a figurative exhibition that explored a number of male models’ relation to and understanding of their own bodies, and the way they experienced their masculinity.  And I wanted to do so in a way that emphasized a level of trust and empathy. The paintings would be primarily about the model; they decided how to pose, they took the lead, I merely tried to record what they were telling me.

 

There were a couple of surprises along the way. Firstly, since these models were mostly people I know well, the way in which they either saw their own body, or the way they wanted to be represented, was surprising. In nearly every case it was not what I would have expected and was quite different to how I saw them. Secondly, it became increasingly apparent, as I wrestled with trying to understand how they wanted to be, that this process was far more about me then I perhaps wanted to admit at the beginning. What became obvious was that I was trying to articulate something about my own negotiation with masculinity.

 

This should perhaps have been obvious from the start; while most of the reading I had done about masculinity assumed from the outset that it was something men deal with, it became clear to me that, as a woman, masculinity is something I negotiate every day. But I am wary of a reading that jumps too quickly to a statement like ‘gender is fluid’; I don’t think that my imposition of myself in these paintings necessarily means that the space between painter/model is blurred in any real sense. If anything I think the divide of sexual difference has been brought into sharper relief in these works. There has been something insurmountable in representing these subjects, a sense of struggle that I now want to foreground for the viewer. In one brief statement, I think the works are productively viewed in terms of an irreducible tension between a portrait and a self-portrait.  – Mel Dare 2015

 

 

looking at him 2005 review

CONTACT

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Email: melaniedare@hotmail.com
No. 7 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 7 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 7, ink and acrylic on canvas, 40.7 X 40.7cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 6 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 6 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 6, ink and acrylic on canvas, 40.7 X 40.7cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 5 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 5 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 5, ink and acrylic on canvas, 30.9 X 30.9cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 4 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 4 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 4, ink and acrylic on canvas, 30.9 x 30.9cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 3 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 3 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 3, ink and acrylic on canvas, 30.9 X 30.9cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 2 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 2 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 2, ink and acrylic on canvas, 30.9 X 30.9cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
No. 1 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting i No. 1 of Don't Be Such a Girl! series exhibiting in Bunbury Biennale 2021 He/She/They at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery until 6th June.

Artwork details: Melanie Dare, Don't Be Such a Girl 1, coloured pencil, ink and acrylic on canvas, 40.7 X 40.7cm, 2021

#bunburybiennale2021 #heshetheyexhibition #melaniedare #contemporaryart #australianartist #perthartist
Detail of one of my paintings for Bunbury Biennale Detail of one of my paintings for Bunbury Biennale 2021 @brag opening tomorrow 06/03/2021.

The Biennale's theme HE | SHE | THEY is a journey into gender identity. The exhibition of 37 WA artist's artwork explores notions of inclusion and diversity, celebrating the heterogeneity of gender within Western Australian culture and community. 

Don't Be Such a Girl (detail), acrylic paint and ink on canvas, 2021

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 #australianartist #perthartist #perthart
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