The Orthogonal Relation of the Migrant Animal: Intersections of Masculinity, Homosexuality and Transsexuality in El Kazovsky’s Oeuvre

Abstract

This article studies the intersections of masculinity, homosexuality and transsexuality in El Kazovsky’s autobiographical body of work. It is not a traditional interpretation of artworks but one that explores the meaning of two notions used by the artist, namely that of the „orthogonal relation” and „migratory animal”.  The formation of the Kazovskyan subjectivity is made in three moves. After examining the gay male gaze that structures the Kazovskyan masculinity, I explore the characteristics of trans masculinities and the problem of sexual objectification, drawing on Jay Prosser and Jack Halberstam’s works. Finally, I show how (the lack of) the phenomenological experience of the cisgender male body shapes the artist’s subjectivity. The body narrative of El Kazovsky gives opportunity not only to articulate the controversial differences between transsexual narrativity and queer fluidity but to point out the problematic tenets in Éva Forgács’s highly praised monograph on Kazovsky.