Embodied Masculinities Within Vernacular Arts Practices
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Lords of Misrule: Embodied Masculinities within Vernacular Arts Practices by John Carter M.A. (Liberal Studies), Simon Fraser University, 2006 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Arts Education Program Faculty of Education © John Carter 2012 Simon Fraser University Summer 2012 All rights reserved However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for "Fair Dealing." Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. APPROVAL Name: John Carter Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Lords of Misrule: _ Embodied Masculinities within Vernacular Arts Practice Examining-Committee: Chair: Michele Schmidt, Assistant Profess()r Heesoon Bai, Professor Senior Supervisor Kieran Egan, Professor Committee Member Michael Ling, Senior Lecturer Committee Member Yaroslav Senyshyn, Professor Internal/External Examiner Boyd White, Associate Professor Faculty of Education, McGill University External Examiner Date Defended/Approved: ------------------------------August 10,2012 ii Partial Copyright Licence Abstract Today maleness and art processes are in a state of flux. In the former case meaning and identity are questioned, and long-standing skills face ongoing technological change in the latter. Each has educational implications. This study addresses these issues by exploring masculine expressiveness within vernacular art practices, in order to discern qualities that may enable young men to create a sense of self through personal agency. A purposeful sense of who one is in relation to one’s fellows and the world, which we term identity, is essential to both individual growth, and collective human development. Though young people construct their own identities, educators may offer frameworks for doing so that are either in opposition to, or supportive of, their students’ inclinations; both can be equally valuable. Embodied agency, which, in the broadest definitional sense, means art, or art-like, activities, is salient as it too involves doing or making something, not merely thinking or talking. In this capacity art education has greater relevance than it is currently assigned, particularly as regards the encouragement of praxis. This study argues that art work is both more endemic and more varied within society than is acknowledged. It also contends that the value of vernacular or alternative practices may be pivotal to the maturation of men during a liminal period in their lives. To illustrate this, four instances of embodied masculine expression are examined: graffiti writing, tattooing, sports spectator arts and street dancing. Selection was predicated on all being ancient forms with contemporary iterations. Each case’s history is recounted and its contemporary features explored in detail. This dissertation is propositional in nature, and conceptual and interpretative in execution. It is interdisciplinary; drawing from philosophy, theology, history, literature, the humanities, popular culture, cognitive science and most of the social sciences, particularly anthropology. By concentrating on non-paradigmatic practices, in a non- evaluative fashion, the thesis determines that such activities are essential in developing both identity and a sense of agency in young men, and consequently sustaining the vitality of society as a whole. Keywords: vernacular art; art practices; masculinities; embodiment; identity; agency iii Dedication To the memory of my Father, Thomas Dunbar Carter IV Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude for the support of my supervisory committee: Dr Heesoon Bai, Dr Kieran Egan and Dr Michael Ling. Also the faculty and students of the Graduate Liberal Studies program at Simon Fraser University, particularly Dr June Stur rock, Dr Steve Duguid and the late Dr Michael Fellman. I am indebted to Maureen Nicholson of Douglas College's Print Futures program, for her unwavering enthusiasm. I salute too my fellow travellers on the academic road, Dr Tom Koch and Dale Hardy, and the long-term members ofthe When Saturday Comes message board, who provided both rigorous critique and writing practise. Finally, and with much love, I must thank my wife Carolyn, who has affectionately and uncomplainingly suffered my mental absences over the past four years. v Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................... ii Abstract ................................................................................................................ iii Dedication ............................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. v Table of Contents ................................................................................................. vi Prologue ................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 6 Section I Chapter One: Art Described, Art Expressed .................................................... 15 Chapter Two: Embodied Understandings and Masculine Practices .............. 34 Section II Chapter Three: The Graffiti Writer .................................................................. 56 Chapter Four: The Tattooist .............................................................................. 77 Chapter Five: The Sport Spectator ................................................................... 99 Chapter Six: The Street Dancer ......................................................................... 124 Section III Chapter Seven: Immanence and Expression .................................................... 145 Chapter Eight: Disembodiment and Agency..................................................... 167 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 189 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 193 vi Prologue May 1967, Stevenage College of Further Education It was a muggy evening. My knees stuck to the floor as I tried to staple a piece of reflective plastic sheeting to an eight foot wooden frame. This was attached to five similar squares that, allowing for a small entrance, formed the sides and top of a box. The box was mirrored because, well, at eighteen years old what could be more appropriate than something that reflects yourself five times? I’d have preferred it to be six but was advised that a thin plastic floor would scuff and tear. This was disappointing but I was coming to terms with the realisation that, in the main, life consisted of small disappointments. Perspiration glued the shirt to my back and dripped steadily into my eyes. This was — I told myself — important, worth the effort. It was part of my final foundation project at the college’s art department. My first actual public show. It would signal my entry into the world as a creative power. Soon, perhaps not right away, but within a year or two at most, it would be recognised as the formative step on the path that would eventually lead towards my first one-man show at a prestigious London gallery. In the meantime it might also help me get into a proper art school. At that precise moment however I was oblivious to everything except getting a thin sheet of plastic to look as smooth as a millpond on a calm afternoon. Totally ripple free was my goal but several hours had elapsed and I’d begun to comprehend how difficult that was. My irritation level edged higher at a similar rate to the inside temperature. Then, imperceptibly, a repetitive sound began to damply penetrate the fringes of my consciousness: “thunk... thunk... thunk...” A regular rhythmic pattern, louder now as I became more aware of it : “THUNK... THUNK... THUNK.” It appeared to be coming from behind the wall... my wall, my mirror. In fact the thunking noise was accompanied by small indentations in my mirror! On the other side of the plastic membrane was my good friend Dave, one of nine other exhibition participants whose fantasies and frustrations were, I suppose, running along the same lines as my own. Dave was in the process of attaching a large piece of cardboard to the back of my mirror with a 1 staple gun. We’d discussed the potential problems of this earlier but evidently he didn’t or wouldn’t listen, even though I’d patiently explained that doing such a thing would desecrate the inviolable purity of my reflective surface, perhaps even (unthinkably!) tear it. But Dave had just ignored me. The term red mist doesn’t do justice to the anger that overwhelmed me. It was more an impenetrable wet scarlet fog. I’ve been gripped by uncontrollable rage on three occasions in my life that I can recall. This was the first and most protracted. The inside of my skull buzzed incoherently as I hurled furniture around, threw objects out of windows and slammed doors so hard pictures leapt off walls while I gargled foam-flecked imprecations at all who approached. It was all very satisfying in a lizard-brain kind of fashion. Fifteen