Chad Burton Johnson creates images that will make you rethink your opinion of what masculinity looks like.
When you think of men in the South, the first images that come to mind are probably beer bellies, beaters, and camo. After all, that’s what the media trains us to see. If you can get past those, you might imagine rebel flag t-shirts, cowboy boots, and trucker hats.
Chad Burton Johnson sees southern masculinity in a completely different way.
In his artist statement, he says:
My work is an ongoing investigation into the perceptions and social standards of masculinity in the Deep South. Recently, issues of mortality concerning cultural ties have emerged from this process and have created a new influence for my body of work. I explore these subjects through a personal and cultural narrative of imagery created with non-traditional materials, such as sequins and rhinestones. The end result is a body of work that is both visually compelling and weighs heavy on social issues.
In his video, he elaborates, talking about the male country music icons who wore suits encrusted with rhinestones and glitter. When I spoke with him at a recent gallery show, he also talked about other masculine icons who didn’t conform to traditional appearance standards, including professional wrestlers, who have also found their way into his work.
His work also has an interactive quality. He chooses portions of images and symbols and obscures others, asking the viewer to look carefully to see below the surface to what else is there. While they may at first only see the familiar, after a moment other figures appear, adding depth to the thousands of carefully hand-placed sequins and rhinestones. Of the process, he says:
First I have to choose the image, and then part of the image, something people will recognize but maybe not right away. These pieces can have 75, 80 hours of work in them. It’s a work ethic I learned from my father. It’s a blue collar work ethic, hard work, that I apply to these. But these are small. There are people doing 12 [foot] by 12 [foot] of these.
His current works on display run from 12″ x 12″ canvasses to 5′ wide pieces and depict a range of topics that would be considered “manly”, but include elements of color and sparkle that, while surprising, don’t detract from the subject. There is nothing “girly” about these. What there is is an eye for subtlety and detail that makes the viewer reconsider what is “masculine”. After all, Burt Reynolds and his ‘stache can never be feminized, even when crafted from tiny sequins.
Think about what you consider masculine in appearance and interests in your everyday life, and who your icons and heroes have been. You just might be surprised at how they look in glitter.
Watch Chad Burton Johnson’s video for more in his work:
See more of Chad Burton Johnson’s work on his website www.chadburtonjohnson.com.
All images used with permission of the artist.