MOTHER
VIRGIN
SLUT
BITCH
BIMBO
GENDER PLAY
2022
Gender Play exploits one-dimensional characterizations of womanhood through a series of archetypes [Mother, Virgin, Slut, Bitch, Bimbo] typically used to categorize and often degrade that which we view as feminine. The series uses performance, gesture, and pose to dissect these stereotypes across different gender presentations, exploring both the aestheticized and embodied performances of gender in non-binary trans identities.
MODELS: SAV LYON & JOESUN BYUN
Mother
Virgin
Slut
Bitch
Bimbo
Untitled
2021
An escapist’s fantasy.
For me, it is one that disguises and fetishizes my own memories of sexual abuse. For the longest time I couldn’t put into words what I was trying to do with this work. While making it, I would actively think of every way I could justify it without admitting what it actually was, looking for every way I could hint at the truth so that other people could inject a story (whether they related to it or not) that did not implicate myself in the narrative. I hid in the ambiguity as hard as I could.
Here, landscape is the subconscious mind, where memories of the scene have been transfigured in an effort to both protect and seduce the [victim]. It is both a way out and a trap; an in-between; a purgatory arising from passivity, avoidance, and guilt.
2022
MARY
These images evolved in conversation with artist Sav Lyon on the topic of their personal experience with and relationship to femininity.
“In my mind, I don’t feel feminine, or masculine, or both, or neither… I don’t interact with them. And when I do, to me, that’s drag.”
The performance and caricaturization of the Virgin Mother serves as emblematic of the pervasive codification of femininity within caregiving. Chastity, powerlessness, and bereavement coalesce in this performance, in which Sav embodies these feminine ideals as a tool to affirm others perceptions of their self and gender.
Joshua tree in infrared
2021
