© Lynn Hershman Leeson
How do you perform your identity? The artists in this room reflect on how gender and identity are constructed and enacted: a kind of performance of the self
Artists have used portraiture throughout history to explore themselves and the world around them. Rather than being documented by others, artists are creating representations of themselves and their communities, taking ownership of their image. They can empower the subjects whilst countering white, heteronormative, able-bodied images often found in art institutions and mass media. Perhaps you identify with these images or see parts of yourself in the subjects. If we take a closer look at ourselves, can we better understand those around us?
We construct our appearance through signs and symbols – the clothes we wear, our hairstyles and our gestures. The works in this room draw attention to these traits which are often read as signs of our identity – those that make us part of a collective or define us as individuals. These artists use photography, video and painting to highlight this performance of gender and self. Looking at these works reveals the performative aspect of everyday life.
Danica Dakic, ISOLA BELLA &²Ô²ú²õ±è;2007–8
Isola Bella 2007–8 is a single-channel video projection displayed in a dark and sound-insulated space that is carpeted and painted grey. Outside the space a number of props used in the film are displayed in a case on the wall, above which hang three posters bearing the work’s title in large white capital letters against a backdrop of blue sky and palm trees. The film, which lasts just over nineteen minutes, was shot at the Home for the Protection of Children and Youth in the Bosnian village of Pazaric, near Sarajevo, a facility for young people with mental health problems and physical disabilities. The artist collaborated with its forty residents to stage an unscripted performance. Set against the backdrop of historical panoramic wallpaper featuring an ideal and beautiful island, the play presents a series of monologues, movements and musical improvisations enacted spontaneously by the residents. Wearing ordinary clothes and paper Victorian-style masks, the participants are both the actors and the audience for the performance. The title of the work, Isola Bella (Italian for ‘beautiful island’), is derived from the name of the wallpaper design and hints at the history of the place, which benefited from its geographical isolation and survived the Balkan wars of the 1990s without any serious damage or casualties. Most importantly, however, it points to the utopian character of the performance, which blends narratives describing real facts from the lives of the protagonists with fictional stories reflecting their never-to-be-fulfilled dreams and fantasies: one of the inmates, for instance, tells a story of his life on the streets and experience of drug abuse while another projects her future as a legal expert for the United Nations.
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artworks in Performing Genders, Performing Selves
Art in this room
Danica Dakic
ISOLA BELLA
2007–8
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Danica Dakic
ISOLA BELLA
2007