![Nil Yalter, Le Chevalier d’Eon, 1978](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/galerist/images/view/6500118f4440cfe99862ede4542d57f4p/galerist-nil-yalter-le-chevalier-d-eon-1978.png)
Nil Yalter
Polaroids: 21 x 28.5 cm (each)
‘Arguably the first artwork from a Middle Eastern context to engage with transgender identity’ (Omar Kholeif, Art Forum, April 2017), Le Chevalier d’Eon (1978) is a seminal, multi-media installation comprising video, paintings, polaroids and photographs.
The work is an expansive portrait of a man who decided he wanted to live as a woman. Referencing the Chevalier d’Eon, a famous 18th century French diplomat, soldier and spy, of ambiguous gender, Yalter’s friend transforms himself into a woman on screen, putting on jewelry and female clothes; large, teardrop earrings and fishnet stockings. It is a heightened dramatization of gender transition, underscored by an accompanying soundtrack of Baroque music by Domenico Scarlatti.