「 Print Gallery 」

For this piece, I really wanted to begin diving into a personal topic, gender expression. At the time, I came across a book. "Last Gender" by Taki Rei, that really spoke to me and helped me find the words to emotions I couldn’t quite understand. Through this project, I wanted to explore the expression of being genderless. I’ve come across many debates online where people try to categorize genders based on appearance alone, into an image that satisfies society without really thinking about the reasoning. “Why did this person choose to wear this specific look?” “Why was this look popularized?” Oftentimes, I find myself wishing I were exempt from these standards about what I should say or do, that I was a doll that could do as I pleased and no one would say, “But you’re this or you’re that so you can’t wear this or you can’t wear that.” All they would think is, “Wow how pretty,” or “How cute!”

This was the final assignment for my screen printing class in SCAD, and my favorite project, mostly because I got to sew dolls together! The dolls are displayed in paper coffins with left over pink fabric and bows, not including the crucified prototype. :3 The dolls printed each have a unique incision printed onto their body. We have one with flowers blooming from a crack, another with a giant hollow hole in their body, and the third with a smaller crack on their body. Dolls are genderless. They can look however you want them to look, be whoever you want and are not restricted in terms of appearance. The insides that are spilling are meant to represent the individual's inner works. As they are facing gender dysphoria, who they really are in terms of personality, beliefs, morality, all the inner works that make them who they are spills out of their body, bringing the focus to their insides rather than what gender they are.