I've been delving into fundamental questions, exploring their resonance and significance to me. In a recent mentoring session, I was prompted to contemplate what unique experiences and perspectives I bring to Venice as an individual. This introspective journey led me to confront questions of identity and representation, particularly in terms of labelling myself as a 'Queer artist.' It's a complex and deeply personal exploration. Straight after the mentor session, I was left with a feeling I had to try and figure out why I felt so much about labelling myself, and in fact just sharing this part of myself. I let myself write some words out to explain to myself what was going on. It was a narrative about othering, about having to come out again and again every time I meet someone new, and not knowing how they are going to perceive that aspect of myself and if it is indeed the only thing they now see. 

I brought this to my counsellor, and we had a magically awkward and funny 5 straight minutes of giggling because she shared with me that she too is part of the acronym (LGBTQ+). This isn’t the only thing I see in her, but knowing it is a part of her made her much more colourful in my mind (bearing in mind that counselling is part of the profession that self-disclosure should be kept to a minimum) 

I’m not sure how I feel about this now. I think I'm still sitting with it as it is, and it may move and change, it may stay the same, but I'm so looking forward to meeting others to talk about otherness, and how they are othered. My art has had a central theme of connecting for a while and it has taken me until now to figure out that what I'm really talking about and exploring is community. What is community? Why is it so necessary to humanity? And why is it so clumsy and awkward and missed by society now? 

The outline for your initial project included taking inspiration from your surroundings in Venice, considering the emotional journeys, displacement, and shifting identities you encounter along the way. Have your plans evolved or changed at all since you made your application?

My project for Venice has begun to shift, with a newfound emphasis on storytelling. At the start of this journey, I felt a lot of pressure in terms of creating the most perfect, thought-provoking project of my career so far. I decided that wasn't the most helpful method and have since clarified what shape the visual outcome will take. Recognising August in Venice as a sinking sunny island of diverse narratives, I'm shifting my focus towards facilitating the collection of these stories. I'm beginning to embrace the role of being a listener, making space for, and sitting with the voices of people (and myself). Ultimately it is the people I will meet, their stories and feelings of otherness that will spark how I process and create a visual outcome. 

I have no idea what will come up for me emotionally while living in a new city, undertaking what feels like my first professional artistic role, and meeting and connecting with so many others. I'm beginning to embrace the unknowing of it all and I'm really excited about that aspect, particularly as I'm usually a person much more driven by a visual outcome yet this time I don't know what it's going to look like.