Messias Performance Art Analysis

Esther Newton’s Mother Camp: Female Impersonators of America provides a unique perspective of American culture from a marginalized, often silenced part of society: drag queens. Newton’s 1960s ethnographic study offers commentary on some of the most basic understandings of America by analyzing the culture of the (mostly homosexual) drag subculture. One of the concepts Newton explores is that all gender is an act. Some conventional wisdom that many accept is the idea of a gender binary, as well as associations of masculinity and femininity with sex. As the typical drag queen involves a man adopting the attire and mannerisms of a feminine woman, he is challenging what society expects of him. Newton argues that the drag queen/female impersonator

Erauso’s action in cutting her hair symbolizes her entrance into a new world of masculinity, as she “cuts ties” with the female gender. By transforming the way the outside perspective views her outward appearance, Erauso is able to persuade her audience of this new identity. Whether she partakes in transvestism as the act in itself or as a way to express her new identity, Erauso convinces those around her that she is a Spanish man simply by altering physical aspects. This is significant in that one’s hairstyle and dress are associated with a particular gender and each serve a purpose in the sphere they associate with. Dressing in breeches, a doublet, and a hose as well as sporting short hair supports the theory that men primarily focus on the public sphere, engaging in physical activity. Their clothing and hairstyle serve a purpose of the daily life of Spanish men during the 17th century.

While the speaker has succeeded in providing an enhanced image of the performer, the act of assigning meaning to the performance and the representation used holds the capacity to limit the experience. As the speaker continues to reconfigure her strip tease into a “[graceful] and calm” artistic dance, he makes a simultaneous attempt to distance himself from the crowd, making no mention of his gender or race directly (5). However, the speaker’s attempt to portray the dancer from objective eyes falters as his

Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is a symbol for all little girls with dreams bigger than themselves. The Little Dancer is a statue of a young girl made from all natural materials, created by the artist Edgar Degas. The Little Dancer has a small head with small features; Degas was not trying to emphasize her face, but her minute features display an expression of hope, almost jovial in a way. The air of her expression conveys the quiet discipline of a dancer and therefore her passion and love for ballet. The legs of the dancer are long compared to her torso, turned out, as a dancers always are. This turnout becomes natural after working strenuously every single day, trying to perfect the dancer’s art; standing parallel feels abnormal.

Judith Butler argues in Performative Acts and Gender Constitution that gender is created by the act of performance and is constructed through the body. She states “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (Butler 416).The concept of the display of gender through the act of performance is perpetuated within the play Latins in La-La Land by Migdalia Cruz specifically through the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo. Both of these characters put on gender and take it off throughout the play, through persona and through representative dress. Gender is a historical space and construction which argues that bodies become gendered through a “legacy of sedimented acts” (Butler 523). The legacy of sedimented acts consists of the habitual performative acts of a person and the build-up of gender norms that produce the outcome of a natural sex. Through this legacy of sedimented acts, gender is reworked within Latins of La-La Land through subversive performing acts by the characters Sid/Rita and Lorenzo.

This trait of a submissive female is reversed within Rrap’s exhibition; Persona and Shadow: Puberty 1984. This piece is an appropriation and deconstruction of Edvard Munch’s work; Puberty 1894 which

For queer theorists, identity has been constructed through performativity, which is based on the opinion of Judith Butler. Butler (1990, p.25) believed that “ there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.” In other words, there is not any factor to produce the identity, but identity creates itself through performativity. One should imitate and repeat the gender expression again and again according to norms, then the identity will be constituted, which also shows that identity is fluid and constructed. Moreover, Jenkins (2000,2004) stated that a dynamic social process generates identity, so identity is not static but fluid and dynamic.

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

Degas is an artist best known for his enchanting and delicate paintings of ballerinas. Undoubtedly, these works have a high degree of charming appeal, and rightfully deserve the praise they are given. However, the power of Degas as an artist extends far beyond the whimsical, enchanting tulle skirts and delicate foot positions. The paintings of Degas can be viewed as a window into Parisian life during a time of great change and social disruption. Degas’s art brings into question: What does it mean to be a woman in the Urban Paris of the modern world? Degas, through his painting, Women on the Terrace of a Café, Evening, depicts urban modernity through a detached lens to realistically portray the female identification problem as a result of the deregulation of prostitution in 19th-century Paris.

Abramovic’s performances can be contextually analysed in terms of Ecriture Feminine, The Abject Body and Feminism. Bell Hooks defines feminism as “a movement to end sexism and sexist domination and oppression, a struggle that includes efforts to end gender discrimination and create equality” (Hooks, 2000: 113). Feminism is also “a political position” (Barry, 2002:22). The term “Ecriture Feminine” was coined by

This feminine masquerade dismantles all existing norms and rules for gendered social division. Nights at the Circus brings forth marginalised characters, women and freaks, and positions them into a state of becoming, where there is no original, only layers of identities (Botescu-Sireteanu, 2010; Michael,

A reading has prevailed over the last decade on the work of Pola Weiss's (1947-1990), allegedly the first Mexican video artist, which seems to be in accordance with the entrenched conjectures made of female performers in the seventies. Specifically propelled by the Mexican art historian Rita Eder who has suggested that her videos develop an "investigation of the act of multiplication of the 'I' by means of the camera mirror" (Eder, 2010), this interpretation has served as a point of reference for further inquires and has not been problematized with due seriousness. From then on, the artist works have been associated to categories such as intimacy, self-representation, femininity, sexuality or narcissism and hence, broadly speaking, inscribed

In examining the work of the impressionist artist Edgar Degas, though he himself preferred to be considered a realist, the very mention of his name conjures images of ballerinas. From the most famous statue of Little Dancer Fourteen Years Old who stands prominently defined in our mind’s eyes or the swirling masses of color and form that showed visions of Parisian Operas in the 1800s like that seen in the painting Dancers in the Wings, Degas’ work is indelibly linked to the world of these petite dancers. On the surface it appears a brief glimpse into their lives, but the work of Degas, much like himself is shrouded in heavy layers of enigma and meaning. Why did he focus so highly on the youth of the Parisian ballets, and in what ways does this convey and reveal the attitude of Degas towards his subjects but also his approaches to art? By examining the world of these ballerinas, we can dissect the juxtaposing values of pain and beauty found in their lives, as well as the underlying voyeuristic and sexually charged undertones of Degas’ own perspective.

A fascination with the human body, body were an experience that could somehow be held in common. The ways in which we might experience the body as connected or represent it as disconnected in a live performance. Shifting attention from traditional art object to the artist’s physical action further proposed that art existed in real space and real time. Marina Abramovic, a pioneer of performance art began using her own body as the subject, object, and medium in the early 1970s as she said, ‘In performance my body is object and subject.’ For the exhibition

Other ethnographies have explored and discussed travestis in relation to gender (Jayme, 2001; Costa & Sá, 2016), religion (de Jesus, 2010), and the pathologization of “deviant” bodies (Nogueira & de León, 2012). Some, like Don Kulick’s Travesti (1998), capture and present essential aspects for the understanding way of life of this social group. All of these topics are fascinating in the way they add to a locus of visibility where we can base an understanding of how travesti bodies are molded by social and material