Identity and Materials in Flux

What Do You Want From Me/What Do I Want From Me

This work was about exploring themes of self-identity and the identity of materials, specifically ice. The lack of identity I have experienced as a result of being autistic relates to ice as a material as it also has no solid identity and rather reflects its environment both visually and in its state (solid or liquid). The work What Do You Want From Me/What Do I Want From Me consists of panels of ice. I have used moulds to shape the ice much as ice cube trays shape ice into cubes. Each mould creates a different panel with a word of the phrase What Do You Want From Me. Inside each panel I have embedded letters cut from transparent acetate so that as the ice melts the phrase turns into What Do I Want From Me. Each word panel is hung from transparent nylon thread. I wear each cold icy necklace until it melts and transforms into an acetate word necklace and document this transformation through film. As the ice melts it makes my skin burn and turn red. Each necklace is documented with a film and these films should be displayed horizontally (either across one large screen or multiple smaller screens) in the correct phrase order so that as the viewer encounters the work they are able to read it from one film to the next. The work I Do Not Understand/I Do Understand uses the same materials, processes and transforms in the same way, and would be displayed in the same way. I chose these phrases as they sum up my experience of the confusion and uncertainties of a lack of identity and the transformation of moving beyond that to make profound discoveries about myself.