Creeping into myself: smocking, pleating, and folding as transgender orientation

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The aim of this practice-based research is to explore how trans and non-binary people use a variety of textile-based practices, tools and techniques to express their identity and experiences. By considering my own process of handcrafting textile art as a way to challenge narratives of transgender bodily boundaries that are often confined to pathologized language and limiting concepts of 'trans-ness', I intend to examine where concepts of materiality connect trans studies and textile art. Within this research I will also seek to locate my work in the wider context of contemporary transgender and non-binary artists who centre or include textiles in their practice. My research questions are:- By creating work that is messy, incomplete and unordered, how does the process and outcome of my practice challenge institutional narratives on trans experiences and trans studies?- How do transgender and non-binary artists use different textile techniques, tools and practices to reflect embodied knowledge? - How does this work challenge hierarchical boundaries of textile art and traditional ideas of skill? Through practice-based research, I intend to use the process of experimentation and creation of original textile artwork to investigate and add to trans theoretical writings as well as to the wider contemporary textile field. The key topics in my research will include how textile practices can play with the removal of boundaries in terms of bodily materiality, time and space as a way to refuse identification or create new identifications, focusing on the idea that the body 'is not a shape but the construction of a shape' (Salamon, 2010: 30). Through examining ideas on queer futurity and intimacy in relation to trans experiences, I am interested in the use of textiles to subvert expectations on how time, space and power can be viewed as either a reimagining or discarding of political possibility. Situating my research within craft and textile theory, a key topic will be a wider analysis of 'sloppy art,' and how sloppiness and failure can be used as a force for destabilisation and changing conventional expectations of craft. Through researching the topics of excess, hyperbole and overperformance in crafts, I will examine whether the ability to play with dimensions allows for wider possibilities on embodiment and identity or if this reinforces stereotypes and binaries for trans artists. Viewing textile techniques alongside trans experiences of constructing the self as intertwined 'felt knowledge' (Vaccaro, 2014: 97) not only centres trans voices but also contains the potential for disrupting hierarchies of power, skill and production in these two areas. I am particularly interested in investigating the relationship between labour and craft, and the implications of devaluing bodies and their work as it relates both to trans experiences alongside ideas on the political economy of craftwork.