Francesca Alaimo

Unfold Movimento 1,2,3

Using my own image I contemplate, deconstruct and transform my identity.
I interlace the melancholy and passion of living in London in the 21st century with Classical references from my Italian childhood. The Baroque game of dark and light, hiding and revealing mingles with my urge to communicate and understand myself. Unfold Movimento 1,2,3 is a challenge to the notion of gender and sexuality as binary. Claiming the space usually held by a male body, I twist the conventional and unfold my reality into existence. This escape from the established boundaries of manhood and womanhood is an intensely grounding experience that engages while encouraging the subversion of the expected.

Work selected as a part of the gayWise 2009 festival in London.

Digressions

My latest work Digressions of Self interrogates and challenges binary notions of gender. Based on and inspired by six paintings by the revolutionary Italian artist Caravaggio, these photographs are almost exact re-enactments of the original paintings with the one notable exception – I have replaced the body of male protagonist with my own. I then digitally re-worked each photograph to give the impression of oil painting, thus visually retaining the gravity and the status of the old master. The staging of each painting is both a replica and a self-portrait referencing my Italian heritage and my androgynous identity. The female figure replaces the original male character, not quite obliterating but permeating it. The metamorphosis is deliberately left incomplete and a disquieting incongruity occurs between this new unexpected protagonist and the classical connotations of the original work. While Caravaggio´s painting remains easily identifiable the transgender identity of the principal character is also evident. In real life Caravaggio's models were vagabonds, criminals and prostitutes, but in his paintings they were transformed into compelling religious and mythical subjects. The result is a restrained and unsettling tension in his work between the appearance and the essence of each of his characters. In this context, Digressions of Self is a defiant re–gendering of icons and a re-possession of qualities that traditionally have always been considered to be male, such as courage, wisdom, boldness, and strength. Challenging the assumptions of a binary sexual category system my work rebels against social limitations on gender conformity. This escape from the established boundaries of manhood and womanhood is an intensely grounding experience for both the artist and the audience. In fact, it promotes realization and empowerment, which culminates in Flagellation in the figure of a transgender Jesus.

Geologie

I specifically created the video ´Geologie´ for the international Earth Day festival celebration in Medellin, Colombia (22 April 2007). It is intended as a mantra for the earth. Numerous people are expressing their most affection for the earth in their own native language. It is a wish of regeneration and a message of hope from all over the world. It is coming from London, a city as diverse as the people who inhabit it. .