Wound Dressings, 1993

Although we frequently speak of living in the present, we each carry with us aspects of ourselves that are deeply rooted in our pasts. This includes our present social, sexual and gender identities. To free ourselves, we often must return to the past and confront our wounds head on.

Inspired by the phototherapy work of English photographers Jo Spence and Rosy Martin, I dressed up to de-mask, negotiating and reconstructing my identity as I moved from female present self to younger self, to mother, to brother, to a fantasized male self in a series of toned photographs, which speak to the pain and pleasure of past and present.