Fragments of Who We Are — 3D Virtual Gallery by Desiree Starley
Fragments of Who We Are brings together artworks that explore how race and gender shape the way people are seen. Instead of treating identity as something fixed, the exhibition looks at how skin color, the gaze, femininity, Blackness, queerness, and performance become the fragments that build and sometimes limit who we appear to be. Some works reveal how stereotypes reduce people to partial images, while others reclaim self‑representation as a form of power. Drawing on ideas from Stuart Hall and Judith Butler, the exhibition shows identity as something constructed, performed, and constantly negotiated through the ways we are represented by ourselves and by others.
A 3D virtual art gallery on Galerra featuring 5 artworks. Walk through the gallery in an immersive 3D experience.
Artworks in this gallery
- 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.
About the creator
Desiree Starley on Galerra