cusp (keep dwelling on my discarded flesh)
Project details
- Year
- 2022
- Programme
- lifestyle-transformation-design
- Practices
- Autonomous
- Minor
- Visual Culture / Honours Programme
Referring to binary structures and mundane code-switching for gender non-conforming people, cusp (keep dwelling on my discarded flesh) talks about the ability to perform our reality and gender whilst being given space to do so. This work suggests we look into the results of centuries-long enforcement of binary structures through biopower; a heteronormative standardised concept of reproductive schemes causing the notion of the self to change. Ingrained regulatory power comes forth in suggestive pushes towards collective goals like state-regulated population growth and the belief of there being only two genders. As such, the minoritarian identities that do not conform to said concepts have faced continuous othering. Heteronormative societies shape identities and its mono-sexual regime is not natural, but in fact, a precisely designed system which has produced the subject it claims to shelter.
Through shared lived experiences a compelling counterweight was found in the voices of fellow gender-nonconforming activists who individually have managed to reclaim their non-binary bodies, as the refusal to conform to said heteronormative regimes. In its simplest form, the notion of non-binary existence holds the power of refusal, the rejection to be defined through shortcoming epistemological narratives. As a result of their impactful demeanour and inspiring affirmations, a speculative alternate reality emerged as opposing alternative personhood. Indeed, a hybrid body arose out of encouraging shared experiences and bolstering wellbeing. Passing, or a lack thereof, ceases to exist. Self-care becomes warfare when notions of radical self-care, intimacy and empathy but most certainly a newfound shared experience opportunity is welcomed back in.