Madeleine Sinnock

In the series Books: I Was Made for Me, the images, colors and text swimming across the plastic pages similarly point to themes of consumption, attraction, and desirability. However, while COMFORT/CONSUME (ME) uses its large size to evoke overwhelm, chaos, even agitation, Books allows for a more intimate connection with the small scraps of plastic refuse. Creating these diaries, especially collecting their materials, provided ways for me to process my complicated feelings of feminine presentation as a nonbinary person. Reminiscent of scrapbooks, the work depicts feelings of confusion and hurt becoming smaller, more legible, and perhaps more manageable. The title of the series, I Was Made for Me, rebukes the neoliberal imperative to make oneself more sellable, more consumable. It serves almost as a mantra, something you say until you believe it— that your value as an individual is innate.