“It Must be Terrible to be Stuck in Your Own Body” is a 25-minute performance developed by us to look at the transition process of Daniella’s body as a transgender woman, and to understand where her body fits within female identity. The performance did not have a specific meaning or intent, and it could be read in multiple ways.

I designed a video projection installation and used a projection mapping software to project images shaped specifically to fit onto Daniella’s body. We used 24 photos that consisted of female body forms, progressing from simple drawings of mine, to silhouettes cut in lace patterns, to antique works of art, to nudes. The video projector ran a video that mimicked the actions of a slide projector, with the images “swipe” cutting to the next image. There was also an immersive sound component amplified in the room, again imitating the hum and click of a projector, although the sounds varied with distortion. The last ten minutes of the projection broke this pattern, with the images morphing from one image to the next, and a slow decrease into silence with the audio.

The performance’s main actions involved me standing in front of the crowd with Kim’s images projected onto me. During the course of the performance, I slowly stripped my clothes off until I was naked, exposing my developing female body form. During the last ten minutes of the performance, I placed the typical materials I use to take my prescribed medication for hormone replacement therapy on a stool under a spotlight: a small vial of estradiol valerate, spironolactone, a medical syringe, cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, and a sharps container. I ended the performance taking a normal dosage of my prescribed medication, including loading the syringe with estradiol and injecting myself in the abdomen. My body will continue to develop and change over a period of months and years.