© Dimitrios G. Antonitsis |
Dimitrios-Georges Antonitsis
' project My Fair (ma)Lady, which he began in
the spring of 1995, involves the exploration of sexual identities within the gray zone
of female impersonation, transvestism, and that ultimate transgression, transsexuali-
ty. The spectacle of a man playing the role of a woman is as old as theatre itself and
exists not only in "high art" but in the ritual and pageantry of virtually every culture. it
is only in more contemporary times that this art has been relegated to marginality, to
"Drag." The allure of this performance is that magical moment of transcendence dur-
ing which the audience forgets (or denies?) the truth in order to be seduced by the
illusion.
Antonitsis' forays into this world have initiated him into the backstage rites
and mysteries, as well as the psychology and personality of the performers, whose
"ontogeny" he has photographed. His fascination lies not with the stage perfor-
mance per se (the result), but more with the process during which the soul metamor-
phoses along with the application of makeup - artifice gradually working its spell
from the outside in. This transformation extends even to paraphernalia and body
parts, which the performers endow with personae, with names, thereby sublimating
them. Andrea Gilbert |