This article is part of Hyperallergic‘s Pride Month Seriesfeaturing an interview with a different emerging or mid-career transgender or non-binary artist each weekday throughout June.
As state governments across the country restrict the rights and freedoms of gender non-conforming people, St. Louis-based visual artist and trans woman Hannah McBroom has shifted her practice to explore the concept of safe spaces where it can just be. In addition to their ongoing fight for freedom, discerning where to find safety is a major concern for LGBTQIA+ Americans. McBroom notes that even spaces that promote acceptance and provide platforms can be unintentionally reductive, rooting it in one’s identity rather than in one’s practice. Seeking points of safety amid her current events, McBroom strives to soothe her anxieties through meditative and observational artistic creation informed by her surroundings. As a figurative artist with a technical background, McBroom now uses therapeutic rituals to train herself and her practice to embrace the vulnerability, intimacy, and imperfections that mark her journey into abstraction.
“I let go of that control and let the work do its job,” she said, mentioning her perfectionist tendencies in art and in life. Between the barren solitude of the doctor’s office and the greenery of the natural world, McBroom’s work structures zones of both physical and emotional refuge as a means of resisting panic in this struggle for survival. The artists Two Year Anthem The series, made up of 24 self-portraits documenting his transition, is currently on view until the end of the month at the group exhibition at the 21c Museum Hotel. The future is female in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hyperallergic: What is the current orientation of your artistic practice?
Hannah McBroom: I worked on several drawings and small paintings. I allowed myself to explore questions that were there for me during my graduate program that I never felt I was able to fully unpack and explore. I make two separate but related series of works: the personal safe spaces of the woods and the anxieties that invade my safe spaces.
There are several paintings that are of the forest; branches and greenery that cover or envelop figures that emerge or recede into the blind. My therapist encouraged me to spend time imagining a safe space for myself and suggested I start sketching what that space might be. I started by trying to imagine what space might look like in 2D space. “Waiting Room” (2021) was an early example of this idea. Looking at the patterned seats in the waiting room was a way to keep my mind occupied while waiting to be seen for exams or blood work.
To me, it’s very clear that trans, non-binary, and intersex bodies are being actively erased politically, socially, and medically. Living in the South, I hear the news every day and these policies have been reported at an alarmingly accelerating rate. This constant worry made its way into the designs of forests and greenery. I started drawing hunters in red coats with red hats and shotguns moving silently through woods and fields, looking for unseen bodies to exterminate.
H: In what ways, if any, does your gender identity play a role in your experience as an artist?
SM: Earlier in my career, I focused a lot on my gender identity. Two Year Anthem (2017-2019) was a timeline of transitioning from my Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) over a two year period. This was the most significant piece I have done due to the vulnerability I have been able to produce and have had the good fortune to perform in several southern states (currently on display in Tennessee). It was a piece that I knew I needed for myself. I knew others going through a similar journey might enjoy or relate to the HRT Startup Journey. I really wanted others to understand what the effects of dysphoria were like and the clarity that happens in the later stages of HRT where you can start to see yourself – it would be like coming out of a cloud and finally being able to taste the air.
For the past few years, I’ve focused a lot more on accessibility for myself. I work full time, so coming home and painting or drawing for an hour or two is the best I can do with an extra day on the weekend. The paintings and drawings I have made are not directly related to gender identity but are informed by my experiences as a neurodivergent trans woman. The Hunter series has to do with gender identity as a by-product, but the Forest series has more to do with improving a place where I can feel safe and present in a space.
I avoided creating works directly about my gender identity. As a visible trans woman, I have had many opportunities to present work or participate in panels. There’s nothing wrong with these opportunities, but after talking with other artists and reflecting on these experiences, I felt that some of these opportunities were simply based on my trans identity rather than just my work. .
H: Which artists inspire your work today? What are your other sources of inspiration?
SM: For the past two years, I’ve had a crush on Lisa Yuskavage and Ruprecht von Kaufmann for their color palettes, abstraction of form, and intricate compositions. I’m privileged to live within walking distance of the Saint Louis Museum of Art, so I frequent every weekend to view works by Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter, Kerry James Marshall, and Anders Zorn.
Most of my inspiration comes from music, movies and memory. I get a lot of sensory and emotional information from watching a movie or listening to an album. Many of my titles come from particular songs or albums that I listened to on repeat while working on a track like “Slip Away” by Perfume Genius. The lyrics and the bubble gum pop style of this clip made a deep impression on my thesis body when I was working on my graduate degree.
H: What are your hopes for the LGBTQIA+ community right now?
SM: My hopes are twofold: that normative and fascist politics focused on trans erasure will evaporate overnight, and that the political and medical communities will restructure their institutions to include the needs and action of transgender, non-binary and intersex people. . I specifically hope that legislation at the federal level will be passed to protect transgender, non-binary, and intersex people rather than just temporary executive orders or no actions. I want all LGBTQIA+ people to exist, to feel love, and to be safe. It’s incredibly dangerous to simply exist for this community, especially with calls for extermination coming from conservative pools. My personal hope is to be able to go to Pride without fear of losing my life.
