In 2014 Backlight Corinna Kern (DE) won the portfolio reviews award exhibition for Backlight ´17. Kerns series Female Maskers is now exhibited at Galleria Ronga until September 29.
The Female Maskers project gives an insight into the hidden, yet growing worldwide subculture of female masking, originating in the desire to transform into a female alter ego. Motivations for doing so are countless and are present in individuals of various backgrounds, ages and genders.
Commonly regarded as a loss of authority, respectability and attractiveness towards women, heterosexual men’s gravitation towards femininity contradicts socially accepted norms. Female masking presents an outlet for the men to live out their female sides, which is rooted in their admiration for the beauty of femininity. Women, forming the minority of the scene, find an opportunity to slip into another role, enabling them to experience another side of themselves, or to simply let go.
The project explores the multifarious meanings of “female masking”: a form of escapism; a way to experience a different identity; an aesthetic expression; a statement; and, last but not least, a means of covering the mask imposed by society itself with one made out of rubber.
See clip from the gallery walk by Pauli Hokkanen here
