Is It All About Identity...?

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What is it about identity that makes it for people so difficult to show it? Is it the fear of not being accepted as who you are? Or just the thought that is a vulnerability? In the art world, I think it’s exactly the opposite: everybody wants to create their own identity and voice, to be that person that has something else to say and show it to the world. If you consider the fact that many years ago, ‘Identity formation was not a matter of individual choice and negotiation’ (Côté and Levine, 2002, p.1), people’s identities were created by the society leaders and what they were considering a person should be like. In our days it is freedom to choose you own identity and what type of person you want to be, but there are still conflicts in between when it comes to the idea if we made the right choice or not, when we present ourselves as who we are.  As an artist, it is actually essential to have your own identity and to show yourself to the world as who you are, because people when they know you as an artist, they don’t have the same urgency to judge you, but actually to appreciate you.

Reference list:

Côté, E. J. and Levine, G.C. (2002) ‘Identity, Formation, Agency, and Culture:  A Social Psychological Synthesis’ (2002)  Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [Online]. Available at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=110529471 (Accessed:  26 April 2012)