SOFT IN THE WATER 2/2

As a result of the transformation through which they come into being, pearls exist in a space between bodies. The pearl is at once the body of the oyster, the foreign body around which the pearl is formed, and its own third body, which belongs to neither of the other two. Materially, the pearl is distinct from the flesh of the oyster, and harvesting the pearl does not necessarily mean the end of the oyster. However, the pearl is not distinct from the oyster’s shell, colloquially known as mother-of-pearl. The two are composed of the same material and formed through the same processes, and both serve to protect the oyster. The oyster’s shell, in turn, is not distinct from the oyster. The shell is an integral part of the oyster’s body and cannot be harvested without killing the oyster. Therefore, the pearl exists in suspension between the flesh of the oyster and a stranger to that flesh. It is one, it is the other, it is neither, it is both.

Queer people and their bodies are subject to the same ambiguity concerning what they are and where they belong. Masculinity and femininity are frequently assumed to be fixed and in opposition to one another, but in reality, these states are shifting and permeable, with substantial room for overlap on both social and biological levels. The behaviours and desires associated with the two are similarly fluid.

Understanding one’s own identity and experiences is very rarely a straightforward process for queer individuals. It requires intense examination of feelings and desires, which are often complicated by external ideas about what one should want or feel. Here, too, things are permeable, with room for overlap. What one is, what one wants to be, what one desires, and what one feels they should desire are all very distinct notions, but often bleed into one another. Unpacking queer identity tends to necessitate a recurring, if not continuous, renegotiation of these ideas that may never result in a tidy answer.

The pearl plays a vital role in illustrating queer identity and uncertainty in the work of Hungarian-American artist Margo Csipő. Csipő’s work is characterised by a sensitivity to ambiguity and suspension between states. Their objects feature engraved images of knots, mazes, and walls. These symbols of uncertainty are accompanied by disembodied eyes and hands, evoking ideas of desire and intimacy. The carefully finished pearl panels that bear these illustrations serve to shroud their content and meaning. The pearl’s iridescent surface is akin to fog, leaving the viewer to solve puzzles concerning the depicted bodies and symbols, for which they are intentionally not provided all the pieces.

The Warm Ones (2022), a series of masks by Csipő, prominently features these pearl panels, which serve to obscure the appearance of the wearer—or perhaps to ambiguate it. The body, once hidden by the pearl, could hold any number of forms. This body, separated by the pearl from its age and sex, is free to act on its own identity with anonymity and is not bound by any prescribed notions of its role or domain. In these masks, the pearl, which anonymises and protects the wearer, reveals a drastic—and perhaps even seemingly contradictory—shift in the wearer’s vulnerability. Within this contradiction, space is created for the wearer to experience contradictions of their own, to experience queerness.