‘Repealing the Bill’ 2026. Oil over traces of graphite over transparent gesso over collage of cut inkjet printed tissue paper on stretched Indian textile; oil over transparent gesso over collage of cut inkjet printed tissue paper on stretched Indian textile. Two canvases that both measure 46cm x 60.
Repealing the Bill debases India’s draconian Transgender Bill, seeking to reimpose a more authentic recollection of trans and gender-diverse people of colour, their lives and experiences.
I print the 2026 Transgender Bill onto white tissue paper, cutting it into a repeating pattern of male/female pictograms and pasting it to the canvas ground. The incision process reveals a regimented attempt to manufacture and enforce gender conformity and thereby reduce any appearances of gender ‘deviation’ within the public eye.
I depict queer, brown bodies, rendered partially transparent, with the support subtly showing through limbs, clothes, collarbones and torsos. Rendering the figure in this manner negotiates how trans subjectivity moves through governmental policies that attempt to erase its existence. Within the context of this political struggle, my treatment of the figure negotiates a presence of grief and solace, but also a quiet refusal to disappear into conformity.
Photographs: Anna Kucera
91É«ÇéƬ School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
