MoMa on their website says identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves. Factors and conditions that an individual is born with -such as ethnic heritage, sex, or one’s body-often play a role in defining one’s identity. However, many aspects of a person’s identity change throughout his or her life. People’s experiences can alter how they see themselves or are perceived by others. Many artists use their work to express, explore, and question ideas about identity.
Whereas Wide Walls goes on to describe how the Postmodern Philosophy of identity in particular, dominates around the topic of identity and identity art. The question of the “I”, and issues around representation, self-representation, and the staging of the “I”, influenced artists of different movements and periods in Art history.
From the Renaissance period, artists investigated the self through portraits, to the birth of the photography, creators have moved inward and approached the painted surface as the record, as the documentation of the marks that the artist’s” I” leaves behind.
In the contemporary society, the shared view around the topic of identity and the identity artworks seems to be the one that suggests that the identity is fluid and under constant construction. The search for the understanding of the world around us demands also for the subject to understand the place it holds and the different roles that need to be acted out.
The idea that the identity is not fixed creates the sensation that this term is often linked to the search and the position of vulnerability, not to mention the rejection of the dominant roles that certain groups were placed in.
The question of ‘who you are’ is a fascinating topic and many different artists tackle this vulnerability and express themselves.
The photo is from my own journey exploring identity through art.
