Worlds Best Mom / 2020 / performance using stolen digital photography and mixed craft media
In this performance I recounted details from a fantasized life story where I had a son named Dexter (whom we lovingly call Rex, in reference to his love for dinosaurs), born in 2015 . Working retail, many shoppers would dismiss me on sight, recognizing my transness. As a defense and forceful identificatory tool, I doctored photographs, personalized crayon-drawn pins and fashioned everyday parental experiences to pull from thin air. This project served to assert myself, if not as a woman, then as a fellow mom. This was the first project of many to openly prioritize lying.
Documentation of this performance included these staged wedding photos that were uploaded to Instagram as an announcement following my gender affirming surgery. The text of this post read:
No Sure Things / 2021 / performance using laminated walnut veneer, gold foil, cut glass
She Said Yes!
The months leading to my gender affirming surgery, I discovered the overnights I would have to stay in the hospital. I didn’t want to spend the nights without my partner to keep me company, but, unfortunately, only immediate family (including fiancés) were allowed after hours. After much reflection, I decided that it was time to make a more serious commitment to my devoted girlfriend: pretending to be engaged.
To exploit the fiancé loophole and convince the night nurses that we were promised to each other, I began carving two bootleg engagement rings out of walnut veneer. After that, all it took was a layer of gold leaf and some glass shards. Then all we needed was to fabricate a few juicy particulars about our proposal and we were ready for even the most skeptical doctor.
Engaged for a night, engaged for a lifetime... What's the difference during that hospital room stay?