VALIE EXPORTIdentity Transfer 2 1968, printed late 1990s

VALIE EXPORT created her black and white photographs Identity Transfer 1, 2 and 3 (P79178, P79179 and P79180) soon after creating her artistic identity as ‘VALIE EXPORT’. Born Waltraud Lehner, she rejected both her father’s name and that of her former husband (Höllinger) and reinvented herself using the name of an Austrian cigarette brand, EXPORT, that marketed itself as unique – ‘semper und unique, immer und überall’ (quoted in Ob/De+Con(Struction, p.26). In a mock advertising shot she had herself photographed holding out a packet of VALIE EXPORT cigarettes, bearing her own face on its side, to the viewer (VALIE EXPORT – SMART EXPORT, 1970). Her pose is confrontational and macho – a burning cigarette clamped between her lips, she looks down at the viewer from under virtually closed eyelids – while an area of breast visible above the low neckline of her leaf-patterned dress emphasises her femininity… (read more)