Jason, 2023

Samuel Perche  

Jason is an exploration of male anatomy. The muscles are prominent, almost atrophied. The bulging pectorals can easily evoke a feminine chest, a maternal form, on which to seek comfort. Jason has the body of a gladiator, but he is painted as a queer fantasy. The palette echoes the colors of the transgender flag. This painting plays on proposing an ideologically virile and powerful architecture, all curves and fluidity, in pastel pinks and blues that question concepts of gender.

My painting is a gay vision of the male body, as much political as poetic; between taboo representation, intimate memories or LGBTQIA+ collective memory. Male anatomy and nudity become the tools of a new genre painting: the expression of a gay identity in movement, in a desire to repair the traumatized collective imagination. Desire becomes a pretext for narration, for reflection on power relations. The contrast of the pink and blue color palette questions the stereotypes of their attribution to a defined gender, whereas in the Middle Ages, blue was reserved for women, in reference to the Virgin, by lapis lazuli and its purity; when pink, derived from red, symbolized strength and virility.

The work is framed in a white painted wooden American box. Width of the rod 1.5 cm.