2026

Performance piece

Shot on a Nikon D3000 edited in Photoshop.

The symbol “x” can mean many different things: it serves as a marker to be passed over. My face, my identity is crossed out, unimportant, wrong even. But, it is also something to search for — x marks the spot — a different kind of target. In mathematics, it symbolizes the unknown, in some cases the unknowable. It is mysterious, similar to how I find being non-binary or trans is perceived. People are scared of things they don’t understand, people seem scared of me with their unrelenting gaze. The “x” can also represent multiplicity. This idea that being non-binary can mean many different things to many different people; this variety is not something to be looked over. And, lastly, it is the symbol on my passport, my driver’s license, a marker of my status.

The “x” over my face is a mask, and a symbol, and my identity. It means that I am a threat, and ignored, and searched for, and variegated.  

Photos courtesy of: Isabel Castro