when the body refuses meaning: art as method

we often speak about the body as if it naturally belongs to the realm of sensuality and eroticism. at the same time, the nation recognises the body primarily through its reproductive potential and its conformity to normative morphology. these two framings appear different, yet they share a similar logic; they both ask what the body is for.

within these domains of narratives, the body is valuable when it produces something. desire, pleasure, children, citizens, along with all the morals, values, and capitals attached to them. bodies that refuse to do so (what I refer to in this essay as “queer body”) are rendered excessive, incomplete, or simply unintelligible. and this logic operates everywhere. even within queer communities when the queer bodies are ostensibly celebrated, they are celebrated conditionally. and I personally believe this is one of the reasons that trans people, aroace people, and people with disabilities continue to be marginalised even within queer communities.

as a queer anthropologist working with trans people, this question of body surfaces repeatedly, even when it is not asked directly. trans bodies are constantly evaluated in terms of biological and erotic function and failure. they are interrogated for whether they are desirable in the “right” way, reproductively viable, capable of approximating a recognisable gendered form, and filial to the family or valuable to the nation.

what becomes clear is that these bodies are rarely allowed to simply exist. they are read through moral, medical, and national logics that demand endless justification, often addressed to people and institutions that have little genuine concern for their lives. even narratives of visibility and inclusion tend to rely on conditional recognition, where trans bodies are valued when they appear passing, happy, healthy, or futurity oriented* (this is also why i remain critical of Tokyo Rainbow Pride’s「ハッピー・プライド（happy pride）」 slogan).

*by “futurity oriented”, I mean the imposed obligation to align with a socially acceptable future.

having the privilege to work with trans people documenting their voices and life histories, I am frustrated by how queer bodies have to pass through the screening of normative gazes, as well as normalised queer gazes that reproduce their own hierarchies of legitimacy and desirability, in order to be seen at all. as much as I try to convey their bodily experiences through words, documentation and argument, the format and presumed readership of academic publication carry their own limitations in articulation and issues of accessibility.

this is where my art practice begins. through art, I explore how the aesthetics of body, of all bodies, can be engaged with without immediately answering the question of purpose or being confined to the scripts of sensuality, erotism, or “happiness”. I want to portray bodies that are not organised around normative and normalised desire, reproduction, or legibility. in my fieldwork, trans interlocutors often speak about moments when their bodies feel most real in reflections on mirrors or glass, when they can encounter themselves without being seen, evaluated, or interpreted by others. art allows me to stay with those moments. it creates a space where the body does not need to explain itself, perform resilience, or promise a future.

iris issen, on a phalaenopsis body, 2024.

Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie IRIS ISSEN. Reproduced with permission.

this is not a statement of rejection against pleasure, attraction, biological continuity or futurity. these dimensions do matter, and they are deeply entangled with trans lives. what I want to resist is the idea that they exhaust what a body can be, or that the body must be aligned with these often normatively defined discourses. through art, I am searching for other ways of sensing, representing, and being with bodies, ways that do not reduce the body to what it produces or whom it serves.

in this sense, my art practice is not separate from my anthropology. I approach art not as a medium, but as a method of thinking with bodies, one that attends to what queer and trans bodies reveal when we stop asking what they are for and allow them to exist as they are. where academic writing is shaped by demands for explanation and justification, art offers a different mode of encounter. it allows bodies to exist on a blank wall, without the obligation to explain themselves, justify their presence, or perform prescribed feelings. how liberating and refreshing it is for queer bodies to simply be, without the responsibility of being made meaningful or self-justifying.