Both Sides Now-Dhillon Khosla

*Both Sides Now-Dhillon Khosla

Last week i return back this book back to CGS, cried a bit here and there. Us transwomen is another side of the same coin. What i like about this book is how he perfectly described many situations of being in gender dysphoria. Towards the end, i copied down some of my favourite parts in the book, that in a way describe what transwomen and transmen are going through their lives.

pg.290 - Energy (Dhillon was talking to a butch lesbian but her gender identity is female)

"As we continued talking i had the sense that i was talking with more of a male buddy than a woman. There was something clearly masculine in her energy and she spoke to me in a man-to-man' kind of way."

pg.291 - Rights/Condition

I was struck by her notion of what was 'All right' and i suddenly felt this strong urge to shake her and say, "What do you mean that's okay?

Don't you know you deserve better?" I was surprised by my own reaction.

pg.292 - Gender & culture

Were body image and cultural roles in extricably linked? Or wether they separate?

pg-298 - Sleepwalk

Will i ever be able to rest? "For as long as my mind knew that i wasn't finished yet, as long as there was more distance to travel, same part of me just couldn't let go and fully engage in life. I was afraid - that i would become complacent. One day i would find myself among the ranks of those who sleepwalked their way through life and justified their compromised existence with dull-eyed clichés like, "Hey as you get older, you learn to set your sights a little lower."

pg.308 - Not giving shit about other people say

"You're all reminded me of an anecdote about Albert Einstein. During his time, there were many who thought he was odd and they gossiped behind his back,  referring to him as unkempt and dirty and eccentric. One day, one of his colleagues came up to him and said, "The things that people are saying - doesn't it ever bother you? "and Einstein responded, No,- i don't live there."

pg.314 - Transwomen

Since this was their final surgery, the three had all been on hormones for years. But what stuck me as most extraordinary was just how ordinary they all actually were. And i came to understand why they hated the term 'Drag Queen" or "Transvestite". For those who fit under such terms were typically and exaggeration or caricature. But theses were women. ordinary women.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/408990.Both_Sides_Now
http://www.dhillonkhosla.com/page.php?page=98

Pyuu Piru

Meeting Pyuu Piru san

On 12/4/14 I went to Nishi Hachioji station to meet PyuuPiru san and go to her studio. I get to meet her husband as well. In Japan, after a SRS (sex Reassignment Surgery), the transwoman can go and change her legal documents and officially get married. But for late bloomers, who transition later after marriaged is a bit hard. And there are no laws allow them to get the official marriage ceritificate.

Before i met Pyuu Piru san i’ve already was introduced to her by another API fellow of the same year, Mayumi san because she work with her together before at Yokohama art museum.

What i love about Pyu Piruu san’s work is the materials she’s using, alot of fabrics and its like a mix media, a sculptures and also knitting, sewing, public performance, videos. I felt like i need to do more as well and was really inspired after went to her studio which just right behind her house. I was also introduced to her parents and her husband and they’re quite surpirsed that i’m doing research on transwoman here in Japan.

Pyuu Piru san is using many different materials for her work to express herself as a transwoman, her life before when she was young and during her transition adn after transition. I was definitely inspired to do more than 2D illustrations and some small public performance.

She also shares her story durin g her surgery with one of the most famous SRS surgeon in Bangkok, which i was told that he;s closing down his clinic soon probably of old age or made enough for his life already.
Some of Pyu Piru’s work inspired me do to do more and explore different mediums to express myself as an artist.

From her book:

"Pyuupiru has felt a devise discord between body and mind since childhood, and this has always been her motive for making art. She has reconstruct her body in a search for an ideal self with harmony between body and mind. She has made her way of life itself into art. The self-portrait series shown here is a record of the body created over a two year period in a male-to-female sex change. It also tracks mental changes from the time in childhood when PyuuPiru first became aware of her dilemma through the tragic period of bifurcation of mind and body to the present when she finally obtained her ideal body. 

Anyone can relate to PyuuPiru's reconstruction of her body if they think back to times when they felt that their body was separated from their mind, were disturbed by the gap they sensed, and acted to bring their body closer to what they saw as the ideal. PyuuPiru's attempt to work out her individuality represents the earnest desire of human beings to understand themselves, which has been the same in all the ages.

Pyuupiru's ultimate work, Virgin White, is a marriage with the self, symbolizing the union of body and mind. Her art, which closely associated with her life, reaches a ind of closure in this work."