Vessel (2021)

  • Vessel is a hand embroidered comic about reconnecting with my childhood self and feeling at home in my body again after having top surgery. An embroidered illustration of my childhood self stands back-to-back with my current self, as I reflect, and collect memories from my childhood. I carry these memories with me into adulthood, but I also let some of them go, as I continue to grow. My flat chest has now returned to me, and I have a similar sense of ease of being in my body again, like I did when I was a child.

    This work is embroidered on calico, using black cotton fabric as a background, with hand dyed blue cotton fabric borders. It features handmade “rocks” made from air-dry clay and painted with pink and blue acrylic paint, sewn onto the fabric like beads. There are 11 rocks on each side to represent age 11 being the last time I had a naturally flat chest, and 11 was the date I had top surgery (11 September) and started testosterone too (11 April).

    Thread, clay, embroidery on cotton. 30cm x 35cm

  • 2023 Unashamed, Artspace Chatswood, Chastwood, NSW

    2023 QuiltNSW Exhibition 2023, Rosehill, NSW

    2022 Gender Euphoria Looks Good On You, Packing Room Gallery: Sock Drawer Heroes HQ, Petersham, NSW

    2021 Gay Boy, Imperial UP: The Imperial Erskineville, Erskineville, NSW

    2021 Good To Be Back, Goodspace Gallery, Chippendale, NSW

[A portrait rectangle textile embroidery artwork on black cotton, with pink blue and white details. The background is black, with a border of royal blue fabric, with pink stitching at the edges. On the left side an arrangement of 11 pink and blue roc

Details of Vessel