Rudy Tomala BA (Hons) Fine Art
Pronouns: he/him/his
My work is centred around representing my transmasculine identity. I cover topics such as self-perception, issues surrounding trans people in public bathrooms, using trans people as scapegoats and exploring death, what is left behind and highlighting the legal hurdles trans people must go through. The medium I use is screen-printing and I stick to a solely blue and pink colour palette to represent and subvert the meanings of the gender binary and explore meaning through colour.
Through the four grave prints, I aim to explore the fears of death that I have as a trans person, there are many legal hurdles to go through to be legally recognised as who I am. There is an absurd fear that certain body parts of mine will remain and those will always be attached to me. Each print interrupts a series to highlight this slow, sinking transition.
The set of bathroom prints highlight that even when I'm able to use the bathroom that corresponds with my gender, there will always be a fear of the past and a fear of people clocking me which makes it very unsafe.
Leading on from the bathroom prints, a lot of trans people are scapegoats for issues like this, the blame is put on us when we simply existing. Taking a spin on the aspect of scapegoating, I represented myself as the goat, in a group of men (blue) and a group of women (pink), exploring how I will always be the odd one out and scapegoated in any context.
After my degree I have a PGCE in secondary art and design lined up and I am excited to begin my teaching career, I hope to be a guide for young trans creatives. I will continue exploring and representing my trans identity through printmaking.
