As a queer artist from the Midwest, rage and despair are often all I can feel in response to the systems within our country that led my close friend and sister, an Ohio trans woman, to suicide. There is great loss I feel within myself and my community and an even greater fear as I watch these systems drive others to similar fates. In the wake of her death, I have felt that it is necessary to make this feeling tangible not only for my own healing, but as a call to others so that they may better understand what is at stake as this political crisis claims more and more of our loved ones.
“Remembering Lilith” holds my sister’s memory within a photograph and slowly buries it within the fibers of her clothes and mine suspended in handmade recycled paper. The 24 sheets, one for each year of life, are not perfect. They are messy, their colors bleed, they are fragile, they are strange, and they never truly manage to obscure her. They are the closest physical manifestation of my grief that I could manage with my own two hands. They are a memorial, a warning, a call to action, and they are something gentle to hold.
Andrea Matthews 