Review of Identity Crisis: Transsexuals

ART'IDENTITY CRISIS': IS IT YOU OR ME?

RATHSARAN SIREEKANAD5 GoogleEND AD5 Google

When was the last time you could dare say you trusted your own perception, the last time you didn't have to have others confirm what you believed to be true?After just a glance at one of the triptychs of "New Identity, Images of Sexuality and Gender", an exhibition currently on at Whitespace Gallery, and you'll fall into the indecision people living in Thailand are most attuned to. "Wherever you look, transsexuals are part of the scene. Be it in the city or out in the country, at a 7-Eleven on a busy street or in a first class hotel, you are bound to see a number of transsexuals," said Ohm Phanphiroj, the owner of the photograph exhibition on Thai transsexuals.According to Ohm, there are as many as 100,000 transsexuals in Thailand. Growing up in the US where, he said, boys could wear neither make-up nor pretty, colourful skirts or they faced the threat of gay prejudice and violence, Ohm observed a marked difference in how surprisingly well people in Thailand receive transsexuality. "They are integrated into everyday life, and physical or verbal assaults on transsexuals in public are extremely rare," he said.Their presence and acceptance in the media is a good confirmation of the artist's observation. Plus, the yearly transsexual beauty contest, titled Miss Tiffany's Universe Pageant, has gained more and more popularity among both locals and foreigners in recent years.Such an overwhelming ubiquity of transsexuals in Thailand inspired Ohm to embark on research of the subject before finding out that there had been no single project focusing exclusively on these female "constructs" as yet."Though most artists find them visually intriguing, they have mainly been photographed exclusively as examples of the exotic."Indeed, Ohm's intention to treat the subject differently is easily visible from the photographic tradition the work is based on. As curator Brian Curtin pointed out, Ohm's current series of triptychs relies heavily on 19th century ethnographic photography usually employed to document and classify criminals, in this case, sexual deviants.With this method of presentation, it seems Ohm tries to echo how harshly our society judges transsexuals - contrasting what the artist says about discrimination in this country being visibly low - an interesting contradiction that may well explain the reality of the Thai criticism culture. Automatically putting on the polite mai pen rai sentiment confronting something not quite our own, we tend to speak about such things only behind closed doors.What is also high on the artist's agenda is for the viewer to seriously contemplate how the exhibition title, "Identity Crisis", takes on the viewers' own sentiments.Despite Ohm's choice of applying the ethnographic photography style to his work, which clearly signals his departure from the exotic treatment of transsexuals, the effect he wants on his viewers paradoxically lies on that very exoticism itself. Ohm told us many male, and sometimes female, viewers confessed to him they were sexually turned on by these transsexuals. Indeed, in order for Ohm to have his audience experience a moment of "identity crisis", sexual feeling in the name of exoticism these transsexual subjects present is unavoidable."Looking at these pictures, you can't help being confused if they are male or female and whether you, secretly enjoying them, consider yourself deviating into bisexuality, homosexuality or some state of sexual ambiguity. Really, where can we draw the line? The transsexual phenomenon blurs the boundaries."As for Ohm, sexuality is something as fluid and situational as water, which takes shape according to what it encounters. For him, labels no longer apply.Looking at the "documentations" of transsexuals, to use Ohm's own term, we are no longer certain about the rigid possibility of how the human body is sexed. Ohm's current exhibition makes us acutely aware of the human mastery and conquest over nature - now, not only nature has the power to determine which sex we are to be created into. With his work, it might dawn on us that identity, after all, is not something we are given to, but something we strive for.Yet, upon looking at the less classically feminine forms of the female body exhibited by the artist, the path toward the much aspired "womanhood" is revealed to not always be a bed of roses. Some spectators said discontentment loomed large on their minds when they looked at these physical "aberrations", as some of the featured transsexual models do not adhere to the norm of the "beautiful" female body.In response, the artist said he would like to urge his viewers to come with an open mind and refrain from any judgement based on rigid convention. "As a test for their everyday life, I want people to see my transsexual friends exactly as they are without judging them." In fact, he said despite certain flaws in the transformation process, "my subjects confided to me they were quite happy with what they had there as long as it brings them closer to feeling more like a woman."The so-called "aberrations" are also presented not so much as a mistake, but as an abundance of creative forms."I don't want to submit my work to the normative idea of how a female body should look like. Beauty can take a wide variety of forms."One can't help questioning why each series of the portraits keeps presenting itself in the same pattern: First, staring out, then closing their eyes, and, last, a smile. This, Ohm said, was accidentally unanimous."The consistency of the facial poses in each set represents [from left to right] their first coming in, then denying their existence and identity as a man by having their eyes closed, and finally upon opening their eyes, every each one of them automatically bear a smile on their beautifully tinted face, which, I think, means they feel complete as a woman."Despite the perception of seeing themselves as women, the actual process for transsexuals of doing away with their former identity is risky and takes courage."Many of my close friends are gay, transvestite, or transsexual and living as women. They have to live a lie, and in fear of being discovered, exposed or even battered. Many of them would never allow their partners to see their identification cards, which indicate their [original] male sex, and almost all of them have to fake menstruation every month to deceive their partners into thinking and believing they are women."Indeed, through "Identity Crisis", transsexuals pose as an equally diverse population as other demographic minorities whose psychological complexity and the lives they lead, according to Ohm, deserves to be investigated so that we gain a better understanding of their real motivations and feelings.Ohm's current exhibition is part of a much bigger international project. Now that he has finished documenting around 50 triptychs in his transsexual collection, he aims to shoot over 100 more and blow them into life-size (2.5m by 1.8m) portraits to be displayed in New York next year. The grander scale, both in terms of numbers and size, of the project, he said, would surely help to deliver a stronger impact and clearer message to the viewer, especially on their experience of a momentary "identity crisis", the theme of this work.'New Identity, Images of Sexuality and Gender', by Thai photographer Ohm Phanphiroj, is on display at Whitespace Gallery, Siam Square, until August 17. Call 02-252-2900 for details.