SACCHARINE
Saccharine is the name of a long-running interdisciplinary project exploring my personal experiences as a recovering people pleaser, and it went on to become the graduation project for my bachelor of fine arts degree.
The project touches on themes of conformity, idealization of false icons, gender, queerness, purity culture, and self expression.
Saccharine’s themes, color palette, and iconic imagery are linked to the artist’s relationship with their femininity, exploring how they interact with the world as a queer, trans-masculine, non-binary person. The work plays into the wider themes of the artist’s practice, exploring the complexities of identity and the difficulties of learning how to love yourself as you are.
Reckoning and Catharsis
Saccharine Act I: Reckoning is a video work made in 2023 using a projection of a rotoscope animation which functioned as a meditation on how people pleasing was negatively impacting the artist’s life. Saccharine Act II: Catharsis was made in 2024 and functioned as a response to reflecting on the first act. Catharsis was the second attempt to use the imagery of ambiguous pink fluid flowing out of the artist’s orifices to communicate an expulsion of self-destructive behaviors which had led to the suppression of their feelings, wants, and needs in order to serve others.
Consisting of multiple iterations made over the course of three years, Saccharine combines a photograph series (Saccharine: Sacrifice), a sculpture (Saccharine: Constrained), and a short film made of two parts (Saccharine Act I: Reckoning and Saccharine Act II: Catharsis). The project started as a photographic series of self portraiture in 2022.
Saccharine: Sacrifice is the title of a set of nine photographs, formally installed in the shape of a cross. The first of the images shown above is from the proto-iteration of the project made in 2022. Paired with the eight other images in this set, made in 2024, the old photograph is given new life by showing a progression not only in time, but also personal growth. The title represents the rectification that these accompanying images provide the younger, vulnerable self.
Exhibition
