sew my true love to my side
Performing as stand-ins for my own, Trans-nonbinary body, my work is that of an assembling. I am thinking about the simultaneous strangeness and beauty of my body, as it exists in a pre-medical, not-quite -there-but-getting-there state of transition and affirmation. Acts of making, such as binding, tucking, stretching, and squeezing, denote complexities of gender dysphoria and especially emphasize its counterpart — euphoria. Anatomical references do not exist as exact copy but offer up precisely enough visual information to be identified as bodily. Knowledge of queer lexicon, coding, and euphemism are critical to drawing further meaning from these objects. I employ abstraction primarily as a tactic for navigating institutional censorship of Queer and Trans bodies and as an avenue for flying under the radar. Undulating abstraction becomes the “drag sibling” of the human body. A piece is conceived, embellished, and adorned in simultaneous non-compliance and self-preservation. The decadence of these objects operates as both queer signaling and defiant response to outer, oppressive forces –– offering up a possibility in which euphoric celebration of queer glamour and life is at the very center of artistic praxis. 
 
These installations culminate through interest in utilizing handwritten text as an avenue for safe-keeping Queer art objects. The soft sculptures, themselves, can be read as text — they call to mind the popular idiom-expression "if you know, you know" (IYKYK), relying on knowledge of Queer code and euphemism to be deciphered. The placement of lustrous, captivating objects thus becomes crucial to posing questions surrounding why Trans and Queer bodies are privately coveted and desired, yet highly policed, wholly erased, and barred from public spheres.