Canterbury sculptor Sharon Earl has always known girls can do anything - but now she has created an exhibition to show how brilliant men are too.
When her sister came home from school in 1985 with a sticker which said ‘‘girls can do anything’’, and placed it on their bedroom mirror, Earl was delighted and perplexed in equal measure.
‘‘I had already assumed that was the case, but I was delighted it was now an official governmental directive,’’ the Amberley artist said.
Although Earl had early confidence in what females could do, she greatly admired her father and always had a personality that aligned easily with boys and men.
‘‘They were uncomplicated, used less words, and everything they did had a practical focus,’’ she said.
At school she played cricket, rugby and soccer, and thrived at metalwork, woodwork and agriculture classes.
Later, she slotted in well to numerous all-male work environments.
‘‘The men made sense, they made jokes and they got stuff done. I found their company invigorating, predictable and (mostly) enjoyable. I got to be ‘the fly on the wall' and I became highly aware of their skill sets, their strength, their bias, their foolhardiness, and their bluster,’’ she said.
Her practical skills and practised reserve gave her a rare opportunity to observe men’s world in full technicolour when health and safety was a ‘‘loose idea’’.
However, in the years since the ‘‘girls can do anything’’ sticker gave Earl the green light for driving tractors and trucks, and farming and welding, she has noticed the gender equality objectives swing way past the centre line to a place where increasing numbers of young men aren't quite sure where they fit in society, where physical risks are all but eliminated and jokes have rules.
‘‘They have been delicately elbowed out of the way as highly-encouraged young women now flourish in education, employment and governance,’’ Earl says.
‘‘A world that does not see and acknowledge the brilliance of men, and champion their extreme efforts, their daring, and their commitment to tasks will see the progress and prosperity of our country fail, at speed.’’
With this in mind she has created an exhibition of artwork in reverence to the male sex and what they have achieved.
‘‘These sculptures are to celebrate the men who have built, and continue to build the infrastructure of our society,’’ she says.
‘‘I think of those linesmen that reconnect powerlines in storms, our military defenders, the miners, the bridge builders, the excavators, the farmers, the fishermen, the drivers, the loggers, the engineers, the scaffolders, the shearers, the mechanics, the road workers, the slaughtermen, the drillers, the painters, the plumbers, the electricians, the bricklayers and the builders. Your work is immeasurably important.’’
- The Brilliance Of Men is on display at the Chamber Gallery in the Rangiora Library until January 20.
