Gendered was the first collaboration piece to ever be entered into the ISU Student Annual Show.
Gendered is a collaboration piece with Efe Tufan. It is a laser-cut acryllic art piece. The final product is an equal sign = that is made up of gendered words. It was displayed in the ISU Student Annual Show in 2019.
Conception
The purpose of the piece was to display the different types of words used to describe people. The original plan was to 3d print each of the pieces, glue them together, perhaps create some stabilization, and then mount the pieces to a piece of wood so that the whole piece would be hung on a wall for display.
Production
In order for me to create the graphics in AI, we needed a huge list of gendered words. To gather these words, we did research online, spoke with members of LGBTQIA+ communities, asked colleagues, and got the help from a coworker with a degree in Gender Studies. It should be noted that not all of the words were specifically gendered. Some words that were used were descriptive words used in the fight for gender equality such as "Liberal" or "Confused". We felt these words were still important enough to be included into the piece. After I created the graphics, I was able to make a 3d model in Blender. Because of time we ended up getting acryllic sheets and laser cutting the words. The overall aesthetic came out much better than 3d printed would have - and it was done in a fraction of the time.
Consruction
Laser cutting is somewhat tedious but well worth it. After all the pieces were cut, we assembled the pieces with hot glue. A few decisions had to be made as weight became an issue. In the end, the piece was a success and ended up being accepted into the show.
Further Explanation
The picture may not do it justice. What the piece ended up looking like was a black equal sign made up of positive and neutral descriptive gendered words. Inside of each part of the equal sign (the top and bottom) was another white piece made up of negative gendered descriptive words. In a way, one would have to look past the positives to see the negatives that people went through.