Body Book

Body Book pushes boundaries by offering the audience an intimate glimpse into my relationship with my body. It consists of several unbound and quilted fabric pages that have an indeterminate sequence. Viewers are encouraged to explore through touch and determine for themselves the correct order. This flexibility reflects my non-binary gender identity and my approach to gender presentation. As a gender-nonconforming person, there is a tension between my external body and my internal sense of self. My work explores and relieves that tension through photography, installation, and collage. I photograph myself and expose the images onto fabric, then fragment the images and rearrange the pieces into quilts and soft sculptures. These constructed forms become simulacrums, new bodies that better align with my current state of being. They relieve dysphoric tension and exemplify queer transformation. The pages of Body Book, like my own relationship with my body and gender, are constantly shifting and flexible. The book is displayed on a table with a chair and a stage for viewing, allowing the audience to become an integral part of the performance. In engaging with the work, the viewers are not just spectators but part of the piece, performing as artists by determining page order and as living sculptures for others to view. The goal of this work is to confuse positionalities and provide a window into my own embodied queer experience.