Creating Masculinity: Workshops and Exhibition
Working in collaboration with Suffolk Archives we devised workshops and an exhibition to present, acknowledge and challenge notions of masculinity throughout history. This began with a deep dive into the archives, where a number of images were collated to be used in creative workshops. And which became the initial research into what broader areas relating to masculinity could be curated into the final exhibition.
Workshops
The workshops, hosted at The Hold were a chance to invite the public into a space to explore masculinity and creativity. The images we sourced as mentioned above included photographs and illustrations. Victorian, Georgian, Empire and war, urban and countryside, the images bought to the workshops were incredibly varied and all captured varying ideas of masculinity.
We used these alongside modern magazines which focussed on fashion, men’s health and different communities which are stereotypically dominated my men; skating, barbering, engineering.
The idea was to bring historic and modern representations of masculinity together within a single piece of artwork. They could be used to highlight how certain attributes of maleness haven’t changed or how definitions of masculinity have been broken down and rebuilt to represent a new culture of men and male identifying folk.
Not only was the artwork created during these workshops outstanding, the conversations that unfolded during the workshops were incredibly poignant. Almost immediately we started talking about our own views on masculinity, our past experiences, interactions, thoughts and feelings, how those moments or ideas have impacted us and how we have moved through the things that once held us back. It was a reminder that if you create space for these kinds of conversations to happen, people will engage with it. Often there isn’t the opportunity to occupy that kind of space in the first place so when it does appear the reception is overwhelmingly positive.
Exhibition
The artwork created during the workshops was threaded within an exhibition exploring the history of masculinity. Working closely with Suffolk Archives we decided on some broader areas to work within; the Victorian period (with a nod to Georgian society), empire, war and mental health. Below you will see images of the exhibition that was displayed at The Hold. They detail a journey from the wavering attributes of masculinity across Georgian and Victorian men, the impact of wartime and intimate stories that challenge the traditional male mindset, a depiction of a hospital treating mental ill health, and of course the artworks created at the workshops.
Inviting the public to the opening of the exhibition was as wonderful moment. To be able to officially present the work that Guy Cry Club and Suffolk Archives had done to an audience, to see how others engaged with the exhibition and to witness the conversations that were inspired by the work was beautiful. For me it was further proof that art, the artistry of curation as well as utilising the voices of the public can have a major impact on shifting perspectives and going beyond those barriers which hold us back as individuals and as a society.
