TS.SP

Jan 23 - April 6, 2025

TRANSEXUAL SWEAT PROJECT | TS.SP

Project Statement: In The Transgender Issue, by Shon Faye, she outlines the real-life difficulties that accompany existing in contemporary society as a transgender subject. One current issue we see is the lack of transsexuals in saunas across New York City. We need not explain why the general population's prying eyes often make our attempts at rest anything but peaceful. Especially when the price tags on these experiences can often be exorbitant. So, we would like to present the Transexual Sweat Project (TS.SP), an art installation that invites the trans community to partake in the time-old tradition of sweating.

Participants will experience the numerous health benefits of saunas while also engaging in the social activity stimulated in bathhouses—the TS.SP may only be basic in infrastructure, but it is our offering to the trans community. A tight-knit community who's eternal love for each other will continue in perpetuity. This continual consideration is especially dire now as dangerous culture wars have spurned an almost constant onslaught of bigoted attacks, which will likely only be heightened under the incumbent administration. Now more than ever, we need to create spaces that foster trans resilience.

This project has no social media or internet presence of any kind. We rely on each participant invited to invite another, and they another in turn—the TS.SP will show the far-reaching web of this often invisible community. If someone would appreciate this experience, please encourage them to come and partake. Each new admission will be granted a member ID, which will be used as their alias to plot the web of our interconnectivity at the conclusion of the installation. Towels and other ephemera collected throughout the exhibition will be used to fabricate artworks that will be exhibited later in the summer.

The TS.SP invites anyone who identifies as transsexual/transgender/non-binary/genderqueer/fluid or trans in any way to participate, with the hope that you may also leave with a friend. We implore those apprehensive to come alone to be bold and trust in the TS. SP. This project is about stepping outside your comfort zone to strengthen the trans bonds between each other and ourselves.

Material List: Infrared Sauna - 2 person Portable shower (quick rinse only.) Towels 15x25’ 8oz Water Bottles Give | Take - TBC. (contributions from participants.) Waiting Room Furniture & Misc.

Open Hours: January 23 - April 6, 2025 Thursday, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday | 2:30-5 PM Please arrive at least 30 minutes before closing. And, by appointment.

Art of the Plus One

My phone stays on do not disturb- days late I see an invitation to sweat. My friend takes me to a studio in Greenpoint and we enter a small, candlelit room. A pink halo surrounding a blue spotlight illuminates the white wall to our left. Below, sits a plush chair and sleek couch, encircling a coffee table housing forms, pencils, and informational papers bathed by candlelight. Incense smoke pools on the ceiling. 

The artist sits behind a small welcome desk facing the door, sporting a polo with the logo for his Transsexual Sweat Project. He welcomes us, and I pick up my pencil- check one: trans, or other. I snag a glass bottle of Polish sparkling water from the give-take, put my belongings in a cubby, and into the sauna I go. Cedar and heat and release. 

Particles observed behave differently. Without witness, we can escape our condition, our gender, our sexuality. Without witness, there is only me, my sweat, and my body. The artist warms water for us to rinse ourselves off with. I leave with a book and invitations to share. 

Transsexual Sweat Project is a rallying call for respite- a chance to sweat out the past 5 years of our lives. In this room, I am more of myself than allowed otherwise. The work is a love letter to transsexuals- a take-one-and-pass-it-on type of experience. A trail of community and comradery: a chance to catch up, to gossip, to meditate, to regulate, to care. A third space. An invitation. 

Social engagement within the arts is an exercise in objectification, as subjects become materials comprising an artwork. Without the presence and participation of community members, the work functionally does not exist. This incidentally becomes a practice of exploitation: take my lover's body. Eat this art. Hurt me. Crawl. How often do we leave fuller? Wholer? Unconsumed by our consumption? How often are we given something that’s otherwise being rapidly taken away from us? How often are we given back our humanity? 

Within this project, I am held. I readily sacrifice my sweat. In exchange, O’Connor skillfully crafts the materiality I need, redistributing white box resources and reminding us to walk through this world like it’s ours, that together we can create the reality we want to see. As the weeks pass, the give-take ebbs and flows with communal offerings and the pools of melted candles grow. When the show wraps, I share one last sauna with a group of people I’ve never met. I extend them my trust, rewarded with the same in return. 

It’s important to have reminders that not everything is terrible all of the time- to reach out and be reached by our communities, extending capacious forms of loving care. TS:SP serves to facilitate this movement, providing space and time to form webs of connection. From the hands of one transsexual to another, and another, and another, with this work I am definitively reminded: sometimes, I can turn my notifications on 

By, Xavier Ludd

2025