Earth is a Deadname
Gasworks, London & Humber Street Gallery, Hull
2022
Exhibition view. Earth is a Deadname, 2022.
descending notes, 2022. 2K video, sound, colour. 18:06 mins.
Installation view. Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?, 2022. Stained glass, honey, dried flowers, cigarette butts, debris, steel frames. Four panel installation, each 218 x 128 x 3.5cm
Detail. Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?, 2022. Stained glass, honey, dried flowers, cigarette butts, debris, steel frames. Four panel installation, each 218 x 128 x 3.5cm
Installation view. descending notes, 2022 (with Raffia Li and Ada M. Patterson). 2K video, 17:45 min
Installation view. To the pain in the womb o womb womb womb fleshy womb, 2022. Antique cabinet, masking tape, alien souvenir figurine, cowboy boot lamp, oestradiol wrappers, 100 x 80 x 51cm
Detail. To the pain in the womb o womb womb womb fleshy womb, 2022. Antique cabinet, masking tape, alien souvenir figurine, cowboy boot lamp, oestradiol wrappers, 100 x 80 x 51cm
The Law of Desire is Fascist, 2022. Lou Lou Sainsbury & Kari Rosenfeld. 15:50 min
Installation view. i keep you in my gut i keep you in my throat—are you hungry? i can feel you beating in me i can, 2022 (with Kari Rosenfeld). Wax, epoxy resin, clay, soil, spray paint, gummies, quail eggs, apple core, sugar, tree bark, lichen, popcorn, plasticine, make up, jacket, crochet, steel plates. Three plates, each 125 x 109 x 10cm
Installation view. i keep you in my gut i keep you in my throat—are you hungry? i can feel you beating in me i can, 2022 (with Kari Rosenfeld). Wax, epoxy resin, clay, soil, spray paint, gummies, quail eggs, apple core, sugar, tree bark, lichen, popcorn, plasticine, make up, jacket, crochet, steel plates. Three plates, each 125 x 109 x 10cm
Detail. i keep you in my gut i keep you in my throat—are you hungry? i can feel you beating in me i can, 2022 (with Kari Rosenfeld). Wax, epoxy resin, clay, soil, spray paint, gummies, quail eggs, apple core, sugar, tree bark, lichen, popcorn, plasticine, make up, jacket, crochet, steel plates. Three plates, each 125 x 109 x 10cm
Detail. [Nov 30, 2021 at 6:12:27 PM]: just a quick one. whats ya date of birth? im putting u as a witness for my trans form, 2022. Portrait of Lou Lou Sainsbury by Kari Rosenfeld, C-print, 27.5 x 20.5cm
Installation view. Sign reads: EUPHORIA ONLY, 2022. Wax, spray paint.
Earth is a Deadname is a solo exhibition that seeks to reimagine transgender experience beyond the limiting language of medicalisation, rewriting its histories into a cosmic poetics of trans sensuality, relation and desire. Comprising film, sound, stained-glass installation, sculpture and live-performance, the exhibition features collaborations with the artists Ada M. Patterson, Kari Rosenfeld and Raffia Li.
The exhibition revolves around descending notes (2022), an erotic science-fiction film that explores transness as a form of dissonance and resonance. Guided by the sonic, it takes inspiration from Donny Hathaway’s heartfelt rendition of A Song for You, whose lyrics are punctuated by a discordant progression of piano notes: “If my words don’t come together, listen to the melody ‘cause my love is in there hiding… I love you in a place where there's no space or time.”
The film tells a cosmic love story between three transing beings whose desire unfolds across time and space, from the sensuality of early Christian sainthoods to future alien intimacies. Grounded in autobiographical experiences of tenderness, solidarity and grief within my friendships and everyday life; as the world splits apart, these undercover beings covertly learn to live in transformation and to give each other breathe.
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Produced and commissioned by Gasworks, with generous support from the Freelands Foundation.