Threads of Identity

THREADS OF IDENTITY

May 2nd - June 18th, 2025

Alehna Taylor

This project is an evaluation of identity in a small queer fragment in Denver, CO. When I was younger, I suffered with constant panic attacks and depression while I discovered the layers of my identity and what it means being a lesbian woman. Then within my community of queer folx, seeing how each person seemed to navigate their own identity so confidently. I sought to explore how they understand their identities, aiming to examine what can help define my own identity through them. This project serves as an acknowledgment of the influences others had in my self-discovery as well as it is self-exploratory, focused on capturing the journey that others undertake. I had volunteers respond to questions about their origins and self-perception. Their answers and the choices in their clothing and poses they had while I took their reference photos, served as identity expressions, and through these I observed the dichotomy in how we want to be perceived outwardly and how we are perceived by others. Using oil paint, I centered portraits on fabric canvases that I believe best represented them. I chose paint colors based on how I saw their energy and finished each portrait when it conveyed my interpretation of their self-expression.

Ultimately though, interpretation lies with the viewer. This project unveils a process of identity, emphasizing the desire for us all to be to be perceived as intended and our subjectivity to the perspectives of an artist and their audience.