National Galleries of Scotland

What do we mean by ‘selves’? And what does it mean to substitute or perform them? Each with a different relationship to the body, the artworks in this room explore questions like these. 

In the world around us, bodies are often too easily categorised according to social constructs of age, class, gender, race, sexuality, and many other markers of identity. The body in art can expose or question these constructs and their related power structures. Some of the artworks here engage with these ideas by challenging stereotypes. Others undo the notion that identity is singular and stable and therefore easily determined. 

Elsewhere in this room, artists document the boundaries and limitations of our bodies. These include explorations of physical and mental endurance, the use of subcultural or countercultural practices, and the role of ritual and customs in our lives. 

In some artworks, artists use the body as a medium through which to represent a particular identity; either their own – combining the personal and the political – or one based on social constructs. In other instances, actual bodies are absent, and a body part stands in for the whole, or a sensuous material evokes a bodily presence. All the selves and stand-ins here relate to performance, theatricality, or staging. They prompt us to think about authenticity and the everyday performativity of identity. 

Display accessibility