Artist Statement: My work surrounds the transgender modified body. As a transgender person, I’m using body modification as a form of radical bodily autonomy and expression. I am interested in the wound as a healing experience. I’m investigating how body modification and the physical and mental states of transitioning collide. Through my practice, I am reflecting on the perceived notions of what a transgender body is supposed to be and what a trans body is; how one can unapologetically love and reclaim their body through nontraditional means. I build with my hands, leaving traces of fingers behind as I pinch and coil the clay. I’ve metamorphosed the real into the surreal, exploring the chroma of the body and experiences through oxides and mason stains.

I reflect on these acts of piercing, pulling, healing, breathing throughout my practice. My making becomes a ritual as I take deep breaths for my pieces- as if it were my skin being pierced instead of the figures. The clay is reminiscent of flesh; stretching the way skin would. In the final stages, I adorn my pieces with their embellishments of piercing jewelry, hooks, or needles. I’m transmutating the industrial object when I make it by hand. Imperfections translate the gesture of my figures into my jewelry practice.
Artist Bio: Sadie Malks (they/them) is a Boston-based artist currently pursuing a BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Ceramics Department (graduating May 2026). Originally from Missouri, Sadie received an Associates in Art at St. Louis Community College where they first discovered their love for clay. They have exhibited work across Massachusetts in Salem and the Boston area. They focus on making multimedia ceramic figurative sculptures about the transgender body through body modification utilizing hand crafted jewelry and hardware
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