“A Labor of Layers”
In collaboration with BPPP, I was invited to contribute artwork to the 2025 Universal Period Review of Human Rights to be submitted to the UN. After reviewing the report assembled by BPPP, the human rights issues I chose to highlight are sex worker rights and transgender rights, and the way they intersect. As shown in the UN report, sex-working and transness are often intertwined and sometimes inseparable–whether we like it or not. As an artist who belongs both to the trans and sex-working communities, I am acutely aware of the reasons so many trans folks have found their way to sex work, while also understanding why state actors profile trans people as sex workers even if they’re not. There are many layers to these realities and I show this through four multiple-exposure photo pieces. I use color effect 35mm film and double (or triple) expose the film, layering different images on top of one another to express the inseparable nature of being trans and a sex worker–whether that inseparable-ness is imposed upon us externally or exists voluntarily.
