The body perception, the problems of social identity and gender in the contemporary art

Over the cource of the last hundred years artists have interrogeted the way in which the body has been depicted and how it has been conceived. The idea of the physical and mental self as a stable and finite form has gradually eroded, echoing influential twentieth-century devolopments in the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy, anthropology, medicine and science. Artists have investigated the temporality, contingency and instability of the body, and have explored the notion that identity is `acted out? within and beyond cultural boundaries, rather than being an inherent quality. They have explored the notion of consciousness, reaching to express the self that is invisible, formless and liminal. They have addressed issues of risk, fear, death, danger and sexuality, at times when the body has been most threatened by these things. The history of work by artists using their own body as the material of their work reveals a cross-fertilization of ideas and ideologies from different disciplines and cultures. The body is the site where identity as defined by gender, race and sexuality is located, performed and challenged. The artist?s body is used as a surface for the inscription of a visual language of identification, both real and projected from stereotypes. Notions of self and identity are acted out in public or brought to light through the artist?s use of props, masks, costumes and disguises to become a masquerade of identity, particularly with regard to the crossing of traditional gender roles. By staging and adopting an identity through the use of accepted signs and signifiers, such as clothes, make-up and fake physical attributes, codes of gender and race are investigated.