Identity
Identity is...
v Fluid or in a flux (there is constant change in what identity could mean).
v Could be related to gender (male, female, transgender) but it may also be our
cultural identity like race and religion.
v Situational. You can also create another identity, an alter-ego, and perform that
identity (recreate another character)
We tend to perform different identity roles in different environments. For example,
our personality as a student in a classroom would be different than our personality
when we're working as a retail assistant at a store or the personality we have when
we hang out with our best friends. This makes performing an identity situational.
An example of an artist that uses identity in his artwork is:
James Luna. James Luna is a
Native American artist who
lived in La Jolla Indian
Reservation since 1975. He
identifies himself to be a Native
American which is his identity.
The museum sees natives to be
more tribal-like and shows it to
be more of the ideal/ obscure
view of Native American
traditions. Luna wanted to
show how natives actually are
so he became a human artifact.
James Luna would lie on a
display case and the tags on
the case would say: "scars
James Luna: The Artifact Piece, 1987.
(caused by drunkenness and
Mixed media installation and performance.
fights) and emotional scars (life
experiences)". Usually in the same room of the exhibit it contains the same theme
artworks within it. So James Luna had everyday objects found in houses like books
and music cassettes and put them as pieces of artifacts in the exhibit as well. You
would expect to see "scar (a wound from a war)" but James Luna's exhibit shows
the true Native American life.
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