Transfigured

2020-2024

Documentation of artist’s proofs in resin with chome finish/

Artist’s renders of new sculptures ready for fabrication in 3D printing/metal casting

Portrait of t. is the first piece in this new body of work to be fabricated and installed. These renders show the remaining pieces in this ongoing body of work.

Transfigured is a collection of sculptural portraits of individuals who have undergone life-altering physical transformations of all kinds. Some were unwelcome - cancer, accidents and illnesses - some more joyfully chosen, eg pregnancy, or transition and gender-affirming surgeries. Every model’s story was unique, and storytelling became a central element of the project. I invited each model to choose their own pose and gesture, drawing from their own embodied experiences, and each scanning session was an intimate space where the models and I shared our own stories of the weirdness of inhabiting a changing human body and of being alive.

As someone who has had her career impacted by disability, I could relate to the stories of chronic illness that many models told me; but as a cisgender woman, I could only listen and learn from the experiences that the nonbinary and trans models shared while modeling for me. I was committed to representing a wide range of bodies, and it was of vital importance to me that models chose their own poses: I didn’t want to tell anyone’s stories for them, and I wanted them to be seen in the ways in which they wanted to be seen. In my model call I made it clear that my role as an artist was to provide a safe and non-judgmental space for all models to express their experiences through gesture and pose.

I didn’t want to equate any of these experiences with any other; I wanted to cast a wide net and allow all stories to be told in their own way. Everyone was able to emphathize and connect with some element of others’ stories though. In the words of one model, “none of us look the same as we did when we popped out of the womb.”