Self-Portrait/Happy

(Collaboration with Horatio Loo and Sian Hedberg 2019) In 2017 the Swedish government made an investigation about the living conditions for trans people in Sweden. 36 % of individuals who define themselves as trans considered committing suicide last year, compared to 6 % of the population in general. The investigation also shows that non-binary individuals are more often misgendered and rendered invisible compared to binary men and women. “Self-Portrait/Happy” is in conversation with, and references Catherine Opie’s "Self-Portrait/Cutting”. This photograph of Opie’s back depicts an idyllic story of lesbian domesticity, which has been cut into the skin. The work is about personal longing but at the same time suggests how the politics of gender and sexuality filters into individual lives. I simply wish to be happy. I simply wish my friends to be happy.