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Gender Relations

2016 Competition entry

Jano Myburgh

Details:
Not Signed
Concrete sculpture
250 mm x 250 mm x 2000 mm

Description:

The relationship between man and woman is a volatile one fraught with passion, sexist behaviour, social faux pas and misguided social conventions - the need for sexual gratification, procreation, partnership and shared real estate being the only tenuous links that perpetually bind us.  These four links, like the four steel rods in the sculpture, are forever under the tension of continual interaction, but thankfully keep us bound.

Through centuries of oppression, women have fought and persevered to gain footing on equal ground.  This gradual shift spread across the last 130 years combined with society’s reactive need to adapt to the shift, left both men and women in an internal crises.  What is their role in the modern relationship? Where do they fit in in the greater social construct?

Springing from its roots in male dominated history and articulated in the sculpture through repetition of the chevron, the universal symbol of a phallus used in military insignia, the remnants of sexist foundational standards instilled intentionally or unintentionally through upbringing intertwined with redefined and more modern feminist ideals, have created an internal conflict, an insurmountable double standard.  This foundational implication in both men and women is further strengthened by the use of concrete as the main medium of the sculpture.  This perception of ill-fitting incompatibility is illustrated by the male and female bodies within the sculpture that are incapable of fitting in their current state of being.