Crystals are formed slowly under the influence of constant temperatures, transforming from raw elements — something ephemeral, something scarcely definable — into rigid forms of various shapes. Individual identity forms like a crystal: under the influence of “temperatures” — the physical and physiological constraints of environment, interindividual functioning and biological processes that form together the “structure” of identity — making it rigid and definable. Yet as there are various shapes to the form — there are various states to the substance. Similarly as ice, when exposed to a higher temperature, turns into fluid water — gender identity and expression may turn fluid and flexible when exposed to a different context than the one under which it was formed.

In my work I explore the fluidity of gender and the influence of environmental context on the experience and expression of identity by inverting the socio-culturally established roles in artistic process. I propose that gender is not only a subject of identity and activity, but that of communication and re-activity.

In order to do so I reverse the typical culturally and historically defined gender roles in representational art: as the old man exposes his femininity to my camera, he finds it comforting and natural, creating a conflict of constructs and concepts — a subtle dissonance that ridicules conceptual boxes and releases us from them. Those created through language and human culture are incapable of representing the complexity and diversity of what there is — but it is possible to show it.

Feminine and masculine are in a constant movement within us both. It is the process that images capture: the transformations of us both — the muse and the artist — into androgynes. Insofar as neither of us is fully and only a man or a woman, but rather both — in continuous interaction.

A space of fluidity and vulnerability is formed between us, a space for expression and observation — a physico-psychological experiment.

Moments of fluctuation in the balance between anima and animus, yin and yan, androgen and estrogen is what I search for. When a rigid crystalline form, turns into a flow of energies, ever changing in time, transforming in place through taking various shapes — just as water when poured into a different glass.

“Being” as a synonym for “experiencing” — that may be different each time, depending on the context and goals, and thus — is fluid. The aim of my work is to un-label and de-construct the personal identity; to expose and show the state of vulnerability — the moment when a rigid crystalline form turns into a natural flow. When liberated from abstract constraints gender becomes a subject to change and transformation. Personal identity when exposed to “high temperatures” starts “moving” again. Here I argue that this potentiality for transformation and plasticity is intrinsic to our existence.