︎ Summary

‘Disposition of Digital Youth’ is a painting that examines online dating platforms within queer communities, focusing on young men navigating desire, loneliness, body-image pressures, and vulnerability in the absence of physical LGBTQ+ safe spaces displaced by gentrification.

This work is part of an ongoing series on male intimacy and digital self-representation, the work reflects how curated online profiles, often reduced to torsos and idealised physiques, shape validation, connection, and self-worth through appearance-based feedback systems.

The work responds to media representation and the failures of the Metropolitan Police following the murders of young men on the dating app Grindr between 2014–15, when George was a student at art school. Stephen Port drugged and murdered four young gay men in East London within 15 months, leaving their bodies within close proximity, yet police failed to connect the deaths until weeks after the fourth murder.

The central figure is anonymous and fluid, echoing the phantom nature of online identities. Constructed using body-enhancing supplements such as protein powders, the figure embodies digitally mediated ideals of masculinity. Surrounding collaged imagery references historical depictions of vulnerability, from religious maternal figures to beggar boys in classical painting, reflecting on the vulerability of young men seeking and eploring their identity online.

Displayed on floor tiles rather than walls, the work evokes medical spaces or memorials, suggesting how contemporary risks to youth have intensified even as their fragility remains historically constant.

︎ Further Reading

George Morl, Disposition of Digital Youth, Southend Museums Wordpress, 20 July 2018

George Morl, Disposition of Digital Youth, Edvardo Shadalow Instagram, 10 March 2019

Platform Artist Focus, Contemporary Visual Art Network, 30 April 2019

︎ Exhibitions

Precious Boys, Southend Museums, 14 July - 08 September 2018

︎ Assosiated Awards

Darren Henley Scholarship, 2016