Carrier: A place to belong

You are born naked, and the rest is Drag. We will deconstruct the body's role as a physical Carrier to reveal how it functions as a carrier for thought, consciousness, and personality, the very dwelling place of ourselves.

Carrier examines the body as a vessel for thought, consciousness and personality: the physical form through which we inhabit the world and express a sense of self. Beginning with questions of personal identity and social relationships, the project explores localized expressions of drag culture and LGBTQ+ communities in Southwest China.

As a transgender, neurodivergent artist born in Chongqing, I photograph from within communities connected to my own identity. I work with friends and community members in spaces that feel familiar and comfortable to them, observing the relationship between their bodies and the environments they inhabit. Their physical expressions become a way to consider individuality, belonging and the ways identity takes visible form.

Informed by typology, deadpan photography, New Documentary and the Japanese tradition of I-photography, I bring attentive observation into a first-person practice. I also explore the literary possibilities of photography, using contrast, metaphor, parallelism and symbolism to build relationships between images. Through these encounters, Carrier considers the body as both a material presence and a dwelling place for the self.