*takes a deep breath*
I ended up changing my plan at the last minute, because my previous idea was not working at all. This idea actually terrified me for a while. To make a work that deals this much with my own personal history is to be naked and vulnurable more than anything else I've done in my practice so far. That is probably what makes this seem like such a powerful work.
Anyways, here's some pictures and my artist statement.
Stories, and storytelling, are an important part of life. Stories connect us to other people, they help us understand the world in which we live. This work explores the changing relationship I have had with my body throughout my life, and the long road that led to acceptance of my body and my gender. Because being transgendered is not something commonly understood, this is a story I've had to retell many times to many people. Indeed, being transgendered sometimes means becoming a storyteller of ones gender history: to oneself, to friends and family, to the doctors and psychiatrists in charge of approving transition. Using found materials – including some that were used in my clothing as a child – I embroidered and embellished fragments of my past and then stitched them together to create a coherent whole. The quilt motif refers to the comforting and protective roles that textiles play in our lives, as well as the use as quilts in history as a way of telling stories.
This project has been an intense process for me, because it forced me to relive the past and face the embodied memories caught in the cloth I worked. I found cloth from a dress my mother made me when I was very young – one that she treasures still, each stitch sewn with love for the girl I was supposed to be – and I was able to transform it into something new and meaningful for the person that I have become. In reworking my past I learned to have compassion for it, and I hope that in sharing my past with others I can help spread understanding.
