Copper View, 2025

I constructed a cottage and faux garden out of timber, bed linens, found objects, and carpet as my home away from home in Ireland because, as a transgender person, I feel unsafe returning to the United States. Copper View encapsulates the simultaneous experiences of comfort and discomfort in Ireland. In many ways, I am able to exist as a transgender person in Ireland with ease: my healthcare is not at immediate risk, and being transgender does not make me a political target. However, it comes with cultural discomforts and distance from my family, community, and the environment I’ve spent decades adapting to. When developing this installation, I was influenced by the deeply moving works of Jasmine Fetterman, Do Ho Suh, and John Boskovich. Their fields of inquiry all heavily overlap with my practice through our shared interest in the queer, the home, and/or the wider discussion on the public versus the private.

Waxed clothing hung in the faux garden with hand-stamped text and transferred images, giving my audience insight into growing up as a transgender person – essentially airing my ‘dirty’ laundry. I contend with how much of my identity and experiences I want to share with the public, weighing privacy against authenticity. I carefully curate how much information I reveal or hide, what remains accessible or inaccessible for my audience in the same way public and private spaces are one or the other for queer and trans people. Dipping clothing in wax fundamentally changes its function: it removes any stretch or flexibility from the garment, rendering it unwearable without struggle and discomfort. Simultaneously, the wax is warm, bodily, and inviting. The garments themselves are not under strain, instead readily absorbing wax and accepting this altered condition. They are unbothered by existing in this state. This encapsulates the way I view being transgender: challenging to outsiders, while simply being a reality that oscillates between comfortable and uncomfortable for the trans community.