Queer Embroidery

boyhood (2022)

In this work, I show the complex intersections of their genderfluid identity with domestic labour, fibre art, and the human body. The roots and vines of the plant follow the arteries of the human body and, when worn, these floral features line up with the artist's body. With chest bound and a masculine haircut, the juxtaposition blurs the line of biological “sex”, often used by transphobic people to deny the reality of nonbinary individuals, and my genderfluid identity, which challenges the layered female connotations of the work.

boy/girl i (2019)Embroidery thread on digital photography — boy/girl i (2019)
Embroidery thread on digital photography

call me your boy/call me your girl

These works exist as part of a larger project of exploring and embracing non-binary identity through art. They are representative of my queer ecology through which I reject the codified gender roles imposed on me by a society in which I am coded female. Growing out my body hair was the first step I took towards accepting my gender identity and represents radical self love in the face of those who shame that hair. These self portraits isolate that part of my body, which I do not feel any dysphoria towards, growing alongside embroidered plants. The works also omit body parts that quickly code me as “female.” The plants, though generic in shape, represent weeds, such as dandelions, that are arbitrarily defined as unwanted by modern western society despite being useful, edible plants. In our society, these beautiful plants are plucked to achieve ideal lawns, an act which breaks down the ecological diversity. Through material and subject matter, these works blur the line between “boy” and “girl” and questions how modern western society labels beautiful beings as unwanted.