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Blonde hair is a potent and highly visible sign in western culture. Although the popularity and desirability of blonde hair in the West is well documented, since the 1950s, blonde hair has also generated many negative associations and these have contributed to myths around blondeness. In particular, women who dye their hair blonde find themselves in a paradoxical position; they simultaneously evoke desire and derision. This thesis uses the model of feminine masquerade outlined by Joan Riviere (1929) as a locus for discussing the transgressive potential of the knowing use of blondeness as a sign. When women wear blondeness in this way they embrace it as an oblique means to access privilege. This self-reflexivity allows women to enter sites of power that they are otherwise excluded from. Drawing on ideas of the carnivalesque, as described by Mikhail Bakhtin (1968), this thesis also proposes that the carnivalesque is employed by women in order to transgress patriarchal boundaries through an ironic masquerade of the archetypal blonde. These paradoxical meanings of blondeness are evoked in the work of performance artist Vanessa Beecroft. Beecroft stages both the reflexive awareness of today's blonde woman and the way in which she is shaped by socio-cultural forces beyond her control. Through reference to Beecroft's art, this dissertation builds upon the optimism and transgressive potential of Bakhtin's 'carnival' and Riviere's 'feminine masquerade' to re-present the identity/position of blonde women as one of agency and power.

La photographie numérique a transformé les comportements sociaux, en devenant un élément important de nos vies quotidiennes. Ne restant pas à l’écart, le milieu de l’art contemporain a suivi cette tendance. La fin des années 1960 marque l’apparition de l’art éphémère, y compris la performance. Сes courants artistiques au 20e siècle ont incité une documentation des œuvres qui est passée par la photographie. Progressivement, elle a pris une position plus forte, intervenant comme support majeur de la création artistique. En documentant ces œuvres, la dimension éphémère de la performance est remplacée par une certaine matérialité qui devient un moyen de posséder ces œuvres. Vanessa Beecroft, une artiste italienne-américaine, est un exemple parfait qui réunit ces tendances et ces paradoxes. Attaquée par les uns qui critiquent son approche qui « exploite » les femmes, elle est glorifiée comme « féministe » par les autres. Sa production artistique efface en effet les frontières entre le monde réel et l’imaginaire, ainsi qu’entre le monde de l’art légitime et celui de la culture populaire, du marché de l’art et du commerce. Dans notre mémoire, nous étudions les photographies prises pendant les performances de Beecroft en tant qu’objets indépendants, ce qui nous permet de pousser l’analyse sociologique de l’œuvre plus loin, démontrant une série de médiations qui sont au cœur de l’œuvre de l’artiste et qui créent la valeur de son œuvre. Enfin, cette analyse nous permet de placer l’œuvre de Beecroft dans un contexte du marché de l’art plus global. / Digital photography has transformed our social behaviour and has become an important part of our daily lives. The contemporary art scene also followed this trend. The late 1960s were marked by the emergence of ephemeral art practices, including performance. These twentieth-century artistic trends prompted an intensified usage of photographic documenting in art. The photographic medium has gradually become a major support for ephemeral artistic creation. The ephemeral dimension of photography has thus become more material, which has in turn allowed possessing these works of art. Vanessa Beecroft, an Italian American artist, is a perfect example of this phenomenon, as her art brings together these tendencies and paradoxes. She has been both criticized for her exploitative approach toward women who participate in her performances and glorified as a feminist artist. Her artistic production erases the boundaries between the real world and the imaginary, as well as between the world of legitimate art and that of popular culture, the art market, and commerce. In my thesis, I study the photographs taken during Beecroft’s performances as independent works of art. This allows me to push the sociological analysis further and to trace a series of mediations that are at the heart of her work and that create the value of these artworks. Lastly, this analysis places Beecroft’s work in the global context of the current art market.