The Male Project by Michael Blewden

Masculinity is being reframed in response to the harms associated with traditional definitions and rapidly changing social, economic, and employment contexts. This reimagining provides an opportunity to embrace broader, more inclusive, and ultimately healthier dimensions of masculinity, such as vulnerability, uncertainty, thoughtfulness, respect, and empathy.

However, the ‘male project’ is not easy.

While there have been gains in gender equality, much remains to be done and ‘fixing men’ needs to occur within this context and without reverting to the patriarchy of yesterday. While framing gender as a social construct enables a reimagining of what it is to be a man, distinguishing men and women, masculine and feminine, can be resisted. However, change and uncertainty brings discomfort, and proponents of regressive ideas have quickly responded to fill the void, providing the ’answers’ and certainty sought by many younger men.

Derived from images from the world of professional football, these works invite the viewer to consider the challenges, uncertainties, contradictions, and new possibilities presented by the ‘male project’. Cropped of context, the emotional tone is ambiguous, inviting multiple readings and interpretations. The images are constructed through layers of drawing, underpainting, stripping back, and over painting, a process itself concerned with the emergence and resolution of areas of tension, contradiction, and uncertainty.