Following my previous work in which I utilised art and design to interrogate and subvert the constructed binaries of men and women, I wanted to further explore the concept of gender identity. Unlike my last piece which somewhat relied on the use of styling and props to convey my concept, I decided that with this work I would attempt to strip back the material layers of gender association and create something Iâd consider to be rawer and less filtered.
In researching gender identity and binaries, I came across a large collection of photographs which highlight the close physical similarities between David Bowie and Tilda Swinton, which has led to the pairâs popular labelling as âdoppelgangersâ in the media. Although is not uncommon for celebrities of the same gender to be compared in this way; such as with Bella Hadid and Carla Bruni, or Henry Cavill and Matt bomer, Swinton and Bowieâs pairing is unique because they are of different genders. Interestingly, it is quite difficult to pinpoint whether the similarity is due to one or the other looking more or less of what society considers masculine or feminine. This led me to the decision of utilising portraits of a man and woman in creating my final work.
I was also inspired by Robert Goberâs 1954 âUntitledâ sculpture, which created in the context of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s. This is somewhat reflected in its weakened appearance and seemingly abandoned position on the gallery floor. At first glance, the sculpture resembles a heavy sack, though it is actually a depiction of a human torso. However, the sculpture is divided into a male and female half, with the distinction of a breast on the left side and a manâs hairy pectoral on the other. By depicting the torso as hermaphrodite, Gober is suggesting the fluidity of gender identity. I wanted to achieve a similar effect with my final work, which led me to creating a piece that I believe merges the male and female gender in a complex way.
I initially began my work by combining two portraits of a man and woman through collages, in a way that demonstrated that both of them are essentially human and equal in terms of the physical proportions of their face. I then started to experiment with creating gifs using Adobe Photoshop. my final work, I wanted to utilise the skills I had developed for creating collages and gifs in my experiments with Adobe Photoshop. However, I wanted to do so in a way that highlighted the different aspects and features of the two portraits, one at a time. I decided that the best way to do so would be to divide them into equal girds and transition between the two portraits by removing one square at a time. This was achieved by selecting and deleting the squares individually and saving a jpeg of the result each time, which proved to be a time-consuming and admittedly tedious process. However, the result was very satisfying, with a final gif comprised of nearly 70 unique frames. As the audience watches one gender transform into the other, they are urged to realise that the differences in the two portraits lie in the finer details, and in fact, they man and woman are more similar than we think.
I believe that this piece of work urges the audience to consider gender identity in a more open minded and fluid way, as what we consider to be more masculine or feminine is often constructed by society over time. Even when we consider the male and female body on a physical level, men and women share so many features which are what make us human. Furthermore, when we place ourselves besides one another, we can see that we are in fact, not so different at all. Of course, the extent to which this is most evident varies.
1. Artspace, n.d. Artspace Editors. [Online} Available at: <https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/body-of-art/body-of-art-gender-fluidity-53246>Â [Accessed 4 September 2018]
2. Hint Fashion Magazine, n.d. Lee Carter. [Online] Available at: <http://www.hintmag.com/post/visual-proof-that-david-bowie-and-tilda-swinton-are-the-same-person--december-02-2015-1227>Â [Accessed 4 September 2018]
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