QCM : Exploring Identity Through Art and Literature — 8 questions

Explication

Self-portraiture here means the artist uses their own body or image as both subject and material. The passage of time is explored through multiple stages of life, not by erasing the self.

Explication

Self-portraiture is the practice of using one's own body or image as both the subject and material of an artwork, allowing for personal reflection and exploration of identity.

Explication

Hockney produced many self-portraits across different stages of his life, using them to reflect intellectually on time. The idea is variation across life, not a single fixed identity.

Explication

David Hockney is known for creating over three hundred self-portraits that explore the passage of time through various life stages. Leigh Bowery is associated with performance self-staging, Wilde with literary character, and Joyce with fictional doubles.

Explication

An alter ego is a fictional or crafted persona through which an artist explores identity. It is not just a nickname or a costume, because it serves a reflective artistic purpose.

Explication

Autobiographical enquiry aims to understand how personal experiences shape an artist's craft and career development, linking life history to artistic formation.

Explication

Perry dresses as his female alter ego Claire through cross-dressing in photographs and performances, which questions and distorts gendered self-representation. The point is not concealment, but visible performance.

Explication

Joyce’s 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' was published in 1916, using Dedalus as an alter ego to narrate his growth as a writer. The later work, 'Ulysses' (1922), further refines these techniques.