Existing comment:
Mark Newport: Raising Questions:
Employing Superhero Imagery as Inquiry About Protection and Gender Identity:
Mark Newport created knitted costumes, embroidered comic book covers, figurines and digital ink jet prints based on photographic self portraits. These objects reference the superheroes he admired in comics and on television in the 60s and 70s.
While earning Fine Arts degrees from Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago, Newport encountered feminist thought about gender roles. Later, as a father with young children, questions around masculinity cropped up again. What really constituted strength? It is possible to protect one's family? The superheroes of his youth provided potent symbols he could call on to explore these concerns.
Newport's superheroes only vaguely resemble the ones on which they are modeled. The costumes are bulky and soft; the figures are short and pot-bellies; the comic-style prints are not action-filled and climactic. Through this tension in both material and content, he comments on pop culture, gender, and art/craft. Newport's work begs the question: Can Everyman be Superman? |