Role play and masquerade practices: A Persona performance

Through a focus on role play and masquerade practices performed in front of the camera, this study analyses how they problematize identity categories such as gender, race, class, ethnicity and religion. An examination of masquerade, drag and cross-dressing practices in relation to photography within a social and historical context positions them as strategies of women, queer and ethnic artists trying to redefine their identity and subjectivity outside of their given roles, stereotypes and representations. The results from this study show that these practices begin with the rise of camera culture after 1860s and date parallel to the emergence of the "new woman" phenomenon, the first and second waves of women's movement. After the 1990s when identity politics has become a central concept in the US-centered culture and the art world, role play and masquerade practices have been used as effective strategies of feminist, black, LGBTIQ and ethnic artists, trying to respond critically to the white, male culture. Through a focus on stereotypes of women in Turkey, a persona performance, entitled "Atlas of Idealized Women" is carried out by using masquerade and role play strategies within the context of the research. As a performative artwork on the notions of identity and subjectivity, "Atlas of Idealized Women" considers femininity as a cultural and historical construction, mask and effect, and aims to discuss identity categories such as gender, class, religion and ethnicity.