MASQUERADE

An Installation piece by Chehalis Hegner.

Femininity is produced very precisely as a
position within a network of power relations.
--Mary Ann Doane, from Femme Fatales 

The images presented in the matrix were generated from a time-based linear video work.  Contextually situated within theories of the masculine gaze, “Masquerade” addresses issues of female identity in contemporary Western culture.  The digital video piece was shot entirely off the surface of a bathroom mirror—where the subject confronts the chaos of varied identities and transformations, seriously questioning notions and anxieties relating to the socially imposed concept of beauty. The male and female “gazers,” as well as the artist, are placed in the position of being participatory spectators as they engage with the piece.  The artist (also the subject in this case) traverses a continuum that encompasses everything from a dissipated hag to a failed attempt at ‘Glam.’  This perspective challenges the widely accepted idea that as humans we have a central core personality, or a genuine and truthful persona at the center of our psychological being.  The face is the most “readable” part of the body.  The device of using the filmic  ‘extreme close-up’ is intentional, and it invites the viewer to read the face itself as a text in the narrative sequence.  However, the beginning is not really a beginning, and the end is not really an end. While the eye of the spectator is invited to move throughout the matrix freely, the artist presses for an answer to the following question: Which, if any, portions of the narrative represent the truth?   

~ Chehalis Hegner.

Chehalis Hegner © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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