Identity Transfer 1-3, 1968
- Medium
- Black-and-white photographs
- Dimensions
- Frame (Each (black wood)): 41 x 29 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (104.14 x 75.57 x 3.81 cm) Image (Each): 31 1/2 x 21 in. (80.01 x 53.34 cm)
- Accession Number
- 2008.11A-C
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Purchase with funds provided by the Photography Committee
InIdentity Transfer 1–3, VALIE EXPORT mugs for the camera in a wig, zippered
jacket, and gold jewelry, subtly modulating her poses, facial expressions, and
clothing. The triptych explores how photography aids the transformation of complex
identities into static images. Here, for example, it documents how makeup, jewelry,
hair, clothes, posture, and other culturally defined gender codes, or signs, denote
feminine identity. For VALIE EXPORT, this was an aesthetic matter as well as a
feminist one, since visual media like photography, television, cinema, painting,
and sculpture have played a major role in representing a repressive, sexist image
of women. However, VALIE EXPORT saw these same media as potential tools for
women’s social advancement. She argued that art can and should be a medium for women
to develop a new image of themselves, defined for and by themselves; this
belief motivated her photographic identity experiments.