It is a pleasure to be able to attend Andrew Norris’s lecture and also have a personal conversation with him. During his lecture, his argument about problematic masculinity & superheroes is thought provoking. We all look for idols and the justice figure to be our childhood model, however, is it healthy to apply the same discipline of a superhero into ourselves when we are having self-reflection? I found that Norris is constantly seeking for his identity, but the duality issue is that he is not what he “wishes” to be. He is attracted to the superheroes when he was a child, and he wished to be able to look like them, maybe because they represent the “perfect” human beings. The fact is he found it hard to achieve this goal and he starts to hate his own body. Media is powerful that it effects people’s thoughts to thing, thoughts to others, and thoughts to themselves. Because viewing different things can form our perspective and point of view to the world. When Norris pointed out his association with superheroes body, that makes me question that what are we actually learning from superheroes when we were kids? Is it the things they do, or the way they look, or the spirit they have? if I watch a superhero film now in my 20s, and I see the villain or the hero, I am able to process the logic behind their action and be able to form my own opinion to them, but how can a little kid decide what is right and what is wrong from the superhero movies when often the time in reality there is not a clear right or wrong answer to things? The psychology going behind his thought of disliking his own body is that the Norris in real life and the Norris in his imagination has a huge gap in between the images. Now Norris is seeking of identity from other artists and have then as his guardian angel, and I believe while he is painting those celebrities, he is constantly critically thinking about them and reflecting on himself.
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| Toxic Masculinity 5, oil on canvas, 40" x 30", 2016 (Andrew Norris) |
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| Toxic Masculinity 5, oil on canvas, 40" x 30", 2016 (Andrew Norris) |
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