Human Intersexions
2012
photography series of self-portraits
concept, costume, make-up and photography
Valerie Reding
The photographic work „Human Intersexions“, that should be exhibited as a series of projections (rather than the printed versions) of the images, questions the oppositional thinking in a heteronormative society, where gender identities are conceived as two clearly defined, facing concepts of femininity and masculinity - a conception that is insufficient to capture the multiplicity and complexity of the human being. Gender is constructed by society who then projects it on the individual.
To create this photo series, Valerie morphed herself into multiple persons, using makeup and wigs, captured them in self-portraits, projected these photographs on her own naked body and finally captured these overlapping projections once again through a camera as „self-portraits“. „Human Intersexions“ is an attempt to use one’s own body as a canvas on which simultaneously projected subjectivities and body images could evolve into a new being, blurring the boundaries between different (gender) roles and female or male identities.