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This is a photo of a ceramic sculpture of a torso from the waist to the neck, with no head or arms. The surface of the figure is smooth but the breasts have a rough texture showing the coils the piece was made from. The figure is tan and peach colored, with a print of a body pressed onto the piece in blue, as though someone covered their body with blue paint and hugged the figure.

This is Not a Female Torso

Jay Petrowski

Ceramic Sculpture

Undergraduate
The title of this piece is a play on the gendered figure in art and emphasizes the lack of transgender bodies represented in art. When I originally created this ceramic sculpture, its form was a reflection of the disconnect I felt between my physical body and my actual self–the feeling of body dysphoria. After beginning to medically reshape my own body, I returned to this clay figure. I found it heartbreaking in its misery, a state I could remember inhabiting but could no longer find, swaddled as I was in newfound comfort. Seeking to share some of this comfort with my past self, I covered my torso in blue underglaze and gave the sculpture a hug.