Painting Trans Genitalia - Video

Video description and credits below the summary of my goals with this piece.

Online, I found nude images of transgender people, often displaying their genitalia. I began to save these images to paint (with consent) and was able to paint a few, this being the fourth of them. My goal is to create a series of paintings depicting the genitalia of other trans people as a way to positively explore trans sexuality and emphasize the possibility for healing against violence through embracing the pleasure of sexuality.
In my research, despite there being a number of trans scholars, I have not been able to find any alternative words for “genitalia,” which is a medical term that fails to describe the richness of transgender experience and falsely locates transness as inherently related to the medical industry. Although colloquial terms such as “girldick” and “boycunt” exist, I find that they are difficult to use with the uninitiated and can risk reifying the gender binary when paired academically. Through my combined painting and research practice, I hope to be able to find or create new gender neutral language that fits trans experiences without reifying the gender binary while spurring positive conversation about trans sexuality and demystifying transition.

Edited by Caitlin Gillogly

[Video description: as the video starts, the painter (a Black person with medium toned skin and curly hair) shows a paint palette with warm colors mixed to make a light skin tone. The video depicts a painting the genital, stomach, and inner thigh area of a white person who is squatting on the ground. At the beginning of the video, most of their pubic region, lower belly, and the beginning of her left thigh are painted. The piece is on a dark purple background with light purple marks filling in areas of darkness. As the video progresses, their penis (which is medium sized and uncircumsized), right and left thigh are filled in more, creating gestural areas of texture, especially on the crevices between different body parts. The middle to end of the video center around filling in the stomach, except for where two large areas toward the top of the painting are left unpainted, showing the purple underpainting beneath. The area below and to the left of it are filled in light blue. /end VD]

#art #painting #transgender #lgbtq #lgbtqia #artist #acrylic #acrylicpainting