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The witch and the clown are compelling images in their exaggeration of human powers and frailties. They are linked as solitary outcasts, whose lives have been thwarted, particularly in the realm of sexual relationships. It is, of course, their exaggerated image that emphasises what they lack, and at the same time suggests its opposite, as yet unrevealed. Their extreme condition embodies a dynamic interchange of opposites—of hunger and plenty, age and youth, sadness and whimsy, folly and wisdom, and so on. But as exaggerated images of woman and man, they also contain the contrasexual. They hold a similar fascination to that of the transvestite who reveals what is inside through the outer disguise and in so doing highlights the two-dimensional quality of our surface perception—in this case, the sexual stereotype—and questions how we establish identity.
The Ulanovs have chosen the witch and the clown as images which turn the sexual stereotypes of women and men on their heads. They explain: ‘Collective stereotypes leave out great chunks of human identity that belong to men and women. The witch and clown figures supply them. The witch personifies what the