Library Gallery \u00a0| \u00a0November 5 – December 17, 2021<\/p>\n
Artist Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n Using sports as a theme, Shirts Vs Skins<\/em> questions what masculinity is, and how our identities\u00a0are formed through cultural norms.<\/p>\n \u201cShirts Vs Skins\u201d, is a familiar phrase for any man who has played team sports. Rather than team\u00a0colours, players would be divided into groups of those who wore shirts or jerseys, and those who\u00a0went shirtless. The mere thought of this was terrifying because I was a small, skinny kid,\u00a0ashamed of my body, and I was likely to be teased or bullied.<\/p>\n I come from a family of \u201cjocks\u201d. My father and uncle were considered sports stars in school, and\u00a0continued to play and coach sports later in life. There were perceived expectations that I too\u00a0would excel in sports, but I didn\u2019t.\u00a0Like most effeminate boys, I was very aware of the role I was expected to play, in order to fit in.\u00a0Boys like me know how we should look, act and talk. We know what the appropriate toys are to\u00a0play with, and what would be said if we played with the girls. We are hyper-aware that we are\u00a0being watched and judged constantly.<\/p>\n Society often breaks sports into two categories, the masculine and the feminine. If you play team\u00a0sports such as hockey, basketball, football or soccer, you are macho. These are the \u201cbutch\u201d\u00a0sports. On the other hand, if you play tennis, figure skate, or do gymnastics, you will probably be\u00a0called a \u2018fruit\u2019 by your schoolmates.<\/p>\n Shirts Vs Skins<\/em> takes masculine sports equipment and makes them feminine. By using pink,\u00a0covering them in rhinestones, or using flowers, the pieces become \u201cgirly\u201d. By simply altering the\u00a0notion of \u201cwhat little boys are made of\u201d, or \u201cBlue is for boys, Pink is for girls\u201d, the work challenges\u00a0the viewer to reconsider their own views about masculinity, and asks parents and the school\u00a0system to be conscious of the pressures they place on boys to fit into a \u201cmasculine\u201d sports culture\u00a0at the expense of their creative or artistic interests.<\/p>\n Biography<\/strong><\/p>\n Growing up in a small community on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, I began\u00a0creating assemblages as a way to express myself, not only as “art for art’s sake”,\u00a0but also as a form of self-therapy. Fortunately, I was welcomed into the local art\u00a0community, whose encouragement motivated me to continue to produce and\u00a0show my work, as well as to get involved in community events such as serving\u00a0on the Board for the South Shore Festival of the Arts, and organizing art and craft\u00a0shows.<\/p>\n At the age of eighteen, I opened my first business, \u2018Mum n Sun Garden Gallery\u2019. I\u00a0offered services in landscaping and floral design, while offering goods ranging\u00a0from bedding plants, to art, craft, antiques and collectibles. After running the\u00a0business for almost five years, I closed the store and moved to Lower Sackville.\u00a0After this I spent two years working in various group homes for developmentally\u00a0challenged adults. Although this was an extremely rewarding experience, the\u00a0visual arts was where I knew I belonged. With much encouragement from friends\u00a0and family, I applied to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. After five\u00a0years of bouncing around between craft and fine art, I graduated with a BFA\u00a0Interdisciplinary, with my focus being in sculpture.<\/p>\n After graduating from NSCAD in 2005, I began working at Argyle Fine Art in\u00a0Halifax, N.S. where I became the Assistant Director. After leaving Argyle in 2010\u00a0I opened ‘Swoon – Fine Art and Antiques’ on the Hammonds Plains Road, just\u00a0outside Halifax NS. Although a life changing experience, in 2015, I closed\u00a0Swoon’s brick and mortar location.<\/p>\n Today I am the curator at ‘The Ice House Gallery’ in Tatamagouche as well as\u00a0curating and assisting with local art shows at other galleries. Through this I am\u00a0just as focused on my own art practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shirts Vs Skins Library Gallery \u00a0| \u00a0November 5 – December 17, 2021 Artist Statement Using sports as a theme, Shirts Vs Skins questions what masculinity is, and how our identities\u00a0are formed through cultural norms. \u201cShirts Vs Skins\u201d, is a familiar phrase for any man who has played team sports. Rather than team\u00a0colours, players would be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exhibitions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21456,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21455\/revisions\/21456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanselig.com\/sjac-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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