Fragments of Who We Are

Artworks

• Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (2010) — This piece fits the exhibition because it shows identity as something co-created, not fixed. Abramović’s body is present, but her “self” is fragmented into endurance, presence, and relational exchange. The work demonstrates how identity can be expressed without narrative or portraiture only through the act of being seen.
• Byron Kim, Synecdoche Oil and Wax on 275 panels (1991) — This artwork supports the exhibition theme because it makes racial representation both personal and collective. Kim’s fragments reveal how identity is constructed through surface, perception, and social meaning, while also resisting the idea that race can be reduced to a single visual sign.
• Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #21 (1978) — This work fits the exhibition because it shows gender as a role rather than a stable self. Sherman’s persona is a fragment of a woman invented for the camera, highlighting how visual culture teaches viewers to read femininity through familiar stereotypes.
• Zanele Muholi, Somnyama (2012) — This work fits the exhibition because it shows self-representation as resistance. Muholi uses gaze, skin, adornment, and pose to reclaim racialized and gendered identity from outside definitions, turning the fragment into a form of agency.
• Lorna Simpson, Stereo Styles (1988) — This piece fits the exhibition because it directly addresses how Black women are fragmented by stereotype, language, and visual expectation. Simpson shows how little information is needed for viewers to make assumptions, making race and gender central to the act of interpretation.