Inaestimabile Hermaphroditus
Graduation project 2016/2017
A visual puzzle that is dealing with gender in contemporary Western Society. The baby is used as a symbol of the threshold when a human is born intersex. There seems to be no place for something in between female and male. Considering the binary categorizing system that society has, the sex of these babies is to be 'chosen' or 'found'. Looking closer at the work, the audience might become aware that their view is literally and metaphorically coloured. Partly the work shows frustration with binary thinking in the re-enactment of stereotypes and gender presumptions still present in Western society. By playing with boundaries of the two sexes the work is asking for a deeper look at the definition of gender and sex.
As part of exhibiting the work a poem was added to give extra context to the project.
Odi et Amo
An island
drifting in the mess,
is an independent puzzle piece.
drifting in the mess,
is an independent puzzle piece.
And there I am swimming in presumptions
and questions,
looking for my place on the island.
This island could be my wish,
my dream of an inclusive world where I wouldn’t have to
ask myself, where I fit in.
Yet I lose myself in
expectations, the normalized and accepted versions of
social interaction.
I lose myself in
explaining.
I’m feeling too much
for those who can’t speak for themselves.
I live in
the harsh virtuality
of gender and sex in my current reality, but
on the other hand
I live in
my dream to become the embodiment of
female and male.
I might not have an answer
and might not offer you the insight you seek,
but I am just
a complex human
and not a puzzle.
