SAM HUXTABLE

Transient Space

Residency at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2022)

two composite portraits from Transient Space (2022).

Project Description

As a non-binary trans person, I come home to myself again and again. These moments are like a long exhale, with fleeting glimpses of safeness, relief or euphoria. Here I do not feel exposed, distrusted or pressured to exist within any physical or emotional binary framework, unless I want to.

Approaching the preciousness of an empty room and a threshold to step over alone, I will explore the act of coming home to myself, carefully and intuitively looking at the ways in which my transness grows and changes when I am alone. Performance alone differs greatly from performance to others- an intimate kind of practice that I hope will encourage an intrinsically unfeigned uncovering of self. Joy and comfort will be prioritised, pain will still be present. Trans existence is tough enough, I don’t need to push it.

Through performance, multi-media installation and digital documentation, with a focus on combining inherently transitional mediums such as clay and digital processing, I hope to build an installation that is both informed by and informs the way I move through the space. A fluid cycle of presentation and re-presentation, discovering, uncovering and recovering. Transient Space aims to house the internal unfolding and constant self-excavation that comes with existing in a body that the wider world doesn’t understand.

I acknowledge that there are infinite ways to experience transness, and this is just mine. I also acknowledge the historical and current leadership, beauty and effort of Black and Indigenous trans women. I acknowledge their immense importance within the LGBTQIA+ community, and to the world. Our lives would not be possible without them. No peace until they are safe and supported.

Read the full description and bio here.