Andrew Nuñez
Andrew Nuñez, BOYGIRL, 2021.
This project’s purpose is to explore the fluidity of oneself as they negate societal constructs of masculinity and femininity. Using myself as the subject, I’m portraying someone who’s not necessarily unsatisfied with who they are but rather trying to understand who they want to be. Unfortunately, our identity plays a large role upon our interaction with society. As a gender non-conforming individual, much of who I am has to do with challenging the status quo and not subscribing to binary ways of thinking. Therefore, making a work that displays such an intimate struggle will hopefully catalyze those conversations that we should be having in order to understand such complexities. Nonetheless, this is a struggle relative to many who are grappling with their identity as well as their stance in the social world. Here is a poem to further elaborate;
how does it feel to be someone that you’re not?
the face you’ve been given, victim to the endless transformation you subject it to
not because you don’t like it but because you want to know how it feels to be something,
someone other than you
the gift of change is something you don’t take very lightly
your hands are power and you use them like an artist
to sculpt, to draw, to paint,
to revolutionize
i know you think that you may see me but who was it that you were really looking at?
certainly not me, but maybe myself as another
As I stare at the reflection in my vanity, these are the thoughts that I ponder
who really am i?
or rather,
who will i be?
an adaptation that has yet to be conceived
the face I’ve been given for others to see
mutilated by my own ideas of what it means to be free
as i occupy this vessel
one thing remains true
i cannot be me without the thought of you
so who will you be?
you’re the one who gets to choose
