Needleworks (2025) is a quilt made from silkscreened photos, hand-dyed neon cloth, and machine embroidery. The needle is a repeated pattern in this piece—the camera’s needle, the testo needle, and the embroidery needle—all creating realities through repeated gestures, at different tempos. It reveals, transforms, repairs, and shapes, reflecting the trans community’s journey to write itself into existence. It confronts the discomfort and tension around change, irreversibility, and the hand acting upon its own body and history. What others see as a wound, I see as an act of repair.
The quilt rises from anger—anger at the constant need to explain and exist under the lens of doubt. It refuses to be discreet, insisting on repetition with subtle variations. The stark black and white, uneven embroidery, and neon yellow backing symbolize resistance, visibility, and self-determination.