Opinion | Ten Hamilton artists use flowers to challenge stereotypes around masculinity – TheSpec.com

Andrew McPhail calls the word pansies a “quaint pejorative.” And one way to defang a pejorative is to adopt it.

He and Stephen Altena are the curators of Pansies, an irresistible exhibition at Paul Elia Gallery on Cannon Street East.

McPhail, who is a multitalented artist, says he’s noticed a lot of contemporary male artists focusing on flowers.

“This got us to thinking about the traditional tropes of masculinity and how artists, both gay and straight, often function outside of those norms,” he says.

“By using the term Pansies, we seek to reclaim its flowery and colourful essence for men everywhere, liberating them from the drab confines of stereotypical gender roles.”

The exhibition comprises the creations of 10 local artists working in a wonderful variety of styles, materials and techniques, including painting, photography, textile and collage. Most of the artists took to flowers, but some opted for the human figure — with flowers. Stev’nn Hall was one of them.

“I wanted to play with the dual meaning of the word pansies,” Hall says.

He’s well-known for his huge floral and landscape paintings. But for this exhibition, he created a series of nine smaller works in which a gay man takes centre stage.

In one of these, “Punk,” the man is encircled by two pansies, a pink rose and a flying insect. Hall says the flowers and the insect represent life and death.

A pair of hands, belonging to someone beyond the frame, have moved into this circle. The hands grip the man’s head from above and below. His mouth looks slightly bloodied.

“The images depict men that are being silenced and strangled, their eyes cast upward toward the heavens, in what might be their final moments,” he says. “They are seeking communion with God, perhaps searching for grace, understanding or maybe even forgiveness from a higher power.”

Hall says the series is inspired by his life as a gay man growing up bullied in a small Ontario town.

“I was choked and harassed, a knife held to my throat, surrounded in a field by guys who wanted to beat me up, and many other countless incidents.

“This work is a poetic expression of the complex emotions that arise from years of that kind of experience — of feeling alone, under threat and asking for help from a higher power because none was coming from anywhere else. And perhaps, in that fog of uncertainty and fear, I was simply asking myself to rise to the occasion.”

Small pansies and bright green leaves enliven “Flower Boy” by Nathan Eugene Carson. Carson, who works in a vibrant flat, sketchy and scribbly style, has tackled animals, birds, and humans in his mixed media paintings.

In this succinct, yet richly coloured, self-portrait, he paints his frontal face in brown, red, yellow and purple. Inspired by old-fashioned vintage hand-painted photographs, he says he’s aiming for a “sense of timelessness.” The image — head, neck and shoulders — also recalls a traditional type of sculpture.

The tops of pansies and other flowers happily crowd one another in Altena’s “Jack-come-up-and-kiss-me,” a name for a wild pansy. Altena, who excels at images of vividly coloured flowers that are ready to burst out of his paintings, finds his inspiration in vintage fabric and wallpaper designs.

A more ordered gathering of flowers takes centre stage in Paul Allard’s “A barber by any other name.” Allard, a poet and painter, depicts flowers and human figures in a loosely lifelike style. Here he arranges a big bunch of leaves and blooms in a narrow vase that sits on a chequered tablecloth. A lone flower and a tiny leaf lie on the cloth along with part of a pair of scissors.

Pansies

Where: Paul Elia Gallery

1165 Cannon St. E., Hamilton

When: until Sept. 25

Hours: noon to 5 p.m.