An Investigation on Race and Gender through Dance
A collection of photographs by Corina Apostol that presents a personal introspection into performing identities through the body, in which the dancers’ multiple artistic identities reveal codes of a multilayered reality.
The dancers that constitute the subject of my photographs draw me into public spaces that nonetheless exude intimacy. Places that are austere – such as a darkened stage or a parking lot – but become sensuous with the arrival of their earthly flesh, inhabited by rich garments, shadows, and lavish sunlight, captured without sentimentality or objectification.
Through these images I interrogate the relationship between mutually constructive categories of race and gender, spectatorship and reception, forged through interlacing depictions of femininity, masculinity and interpersonal relationships. I chose to focus on forms of interaction and self-presentation in dance, as this artistic practice embodies physical, emotional and spiritual information defined by culturally specific activities. My intention is to capture transgressive poses and movements, reimagining power structures that rely on prescribed representations.
As a photographic technique, I employed a constant interplay between clarity and blur and between color and b&w to highlight the theoretical structure of my visual inquiry. The series thus presents a personal introspection into performing identities through the body, in which the dancers’ multiple artistic identities reveal codes of a multilayered reality.
All photographs by Corina Apostol, Canon digital camera, 8” x 10”, March-May 2008, Durham, NC.
This exhibition was sponsored in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
