Research

I have experienced the power of healing through art. Not a physical or medical cure, but rather a powerful emotional transformation that allowed me to change my perspective on living in a queer-disabled body. This new perspective allows me to now use my position as an artist, activist, and researcher to bring attention to the many issues facing my community.

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Living most of my life as a professional patient, social practice and installation pieces work as interventions to disrupt the status quo and promote individual, community-level, and political healing by promoting awareness of the many issues faced by others like me. I recognize the power of coming together with community members to collectively participate in creative outpourings intended to catch the attention of broad audiences. Through performance, installation, and social practice, I utilize an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating sculpture, photography, design, glass, painting, and other collaborative techniques, transforming them into candid and documentary video, collage, assemblage, and site-specific installations to push back against hegemonic cis-heteropatriarchy, ableism, and living in a medicalized and often desexualized body.

As I transition into my role as a doctoral student in Medical Anthropology, I will continue to research the positive effects of engagement with the arts on the queer-disabled community and how the utilization of social practice art as a site of resistance promotes healing. I aim to center my graduate research around creating spaces where queer-disabled individuals can show up as their whole selves to engage in collective art practices, continually seeking to effect positive change through art.