Introduction

This project is a transdisciplinary and community-focused exploration of the relationship between trans identity, fertility, bodily autonomy, and reproductive care. Developed through workshops, discussion, collaborative making, and exhibition practice, the project aims to create a space where trans+ individuals can openly explore personal experiences surrounding fertility preservation, medical systems, family pressure, transition, and future parenthood. The project aims to culminate into a collaborative exhibition, bringing together work produced through shared sessions alongside independently submitted works responding to the theme.

The project emerged through research into fertility preservation treatment and the emotional, social, and medical experiences surrounding trans+ fertility care. Fertility remains a deeply emotional yet under-discussed, almost taboo topic within trans+ communities. Conversations surrounding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), infertility, biological children, medical waiting lists, and bodily autonomy are often surrounded by misinformation, shame, or fear. Wright (2023) discusses how fertility and reproductive rights remain deeply entangled within wider structures of trans healthcare and legal recognition, pointing out that many countries still require complete sterilisation in order to change their gender marker. As well as this, Muñoz (2009) explores how queer futures are shaped mainly through ideas of possibility, future identity, and imagined lives as opposed to genuine knowledge and understanding of individual and collective futures. Through wider discussion and research, it became apparent that many trans+ individuals carry similar anxieties and experiences but rarely have spaces to discuss them openly.

Rather than approaching the topic solely through individual artistic practice, the project uses collaborative and socially engaged methods to create opportunities for collective reflection and conversation. Workshops function as creative and supportive environments where participants can explore their experiences through writing, discussion, zine-making, collaborative mind mapping, sound experimentation, and visual development. The intention is not to produce a singular narrative surrounding trans fertility, but instead to demonstrate the diversity, complexity, and emotional nuance that exists within these experiences. Kester (2011) argues that dialogue and exchange can function as artistic practice in themselves, while Bishop (2012) discusses how participatory art can challenge traditional relationships between artist, audience, and authorship. These ideas strongly inform the collaborative ways of working that build the structure of this project.

The collaborative nature of the project is central to its methodology. Participants do not simply contribute content to a pre-existing exhibition concept, but instead actively shape the direction, tone, and outcomes of the project through shared discussion and creative exploration. This allows the project to move beyond disciplinary boundaries between installation, socially engaged art, sound practice, writing, curation, and community organising. Workshops are intended to function not only as methods of production, but also as spaces of care, dialogue, and mutual support.

Potential workshop activities currently include:

- Mind mapping experiences of fertility and transition

- Collaborative writing exercises

- Visualising emotion through material experimentation

- Zine-making workshops

- Spoken word and sound sessions

These will all be formed alongside discussions surrounding care, reproduction, and bodily autonomy.

The resulting exhibition will combine workshop outcomes, participant contributions, documentation, written material, sound work, and independently submitted artworks into a collaboratively shaped exhibition environment. Accessibility is also an important consideration within the project. Alongside visual and installation-based elements, the exhibition may include printed booklets, transcripts, written documentation, and multiple forms of engagement to ensure the work remains accessible to audiences of varying needs.

The project is additionally informed by socially engaged and collaborative artistic practices, particularly the work of Resolve Collective, whose approach to community participation and shared authorship has helped shape the project’s understanding of transdisciplinary art-making. As well as being informed by wider discussions surrounding queer futures, reproductive politics, medicalisation, and collective care.

Overall, the project seeks to create a platform where trans+ individuals can explore complex emotional experiences surrounding fertility in ways that prioritise openness, creativity, vulnerability, and collective dialogue.