Sticks & Stones

My BFA Solo Show was installed at various educational institutions in Mid-Missouri, including Columbia College, Moberly Area Community College, and William Woods University. This work is created with letterpress, cyanotype printing, and copper plate etchings. I enjoy working in these historic processes, and I find them relevant to this work because many of our ideas of gender dichotomy stem from Victorian ideals. Combined with video projections of personal interviews, this installation is meant to invoke in the viewer a sense of inescapable immersion in the (often solely internal) questions and reflections on gender identity, self perception, public presentation of self, and the perception of others.

Many queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people experience these voices in their minds regularly. Even when we are exhausted by our own rumination on these topics, the casual comments of others can bring us forcibly back into a world of contemplation, explanation, and justification for our own sense of self and presentation to those around us. This work is meant to challenge the viewer to question assumptions and ideas about their own gender that may have settled into unquestioning acceptance (or for those that already exist in this state of mind, to share a sense of seeing and understanding).

Do our ideas about gender come from within us or from without? What role do graphics, typography, and tone play in the auditory and visual messaging that we consume every day? We often talk about how graphic design can be used in a marketing context to affect behavior; but how often do we alter our own work to conform to certain ideas (often influenced by skewed ideas from gendered market research), and how much are our ideas affected by what has been marketed to us, and internalized as self-evident truth without our conscious consent? I aim to explore how words and type affect our perceptions of ourselves and each other. The words that we use and the way that we use them can affect us in a deep way. My work references trailblazers in art and design such as Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, and Glenn Ligon, in order to call attention to current conversations about gender and highlight voices that are often overlooked.