I’m not an expert on this and I have struggled with my identity for a very long time myself. But I have a little bit of lived experience, of trying to work some of it out. I am queer, and I came out late as bigendered and bisexual. I go by she/they. I have invisible diffability. Identity changes – some days I identify differently – and that is okay.
Sometimes it can be confronting to step out your door into a world you struggle to understand, because the world doesn’t always understand you. It is important not to feel shame about finding out who you are.
It’s okay to question and find out in your own way. Don’t judge a book by its cover because you don’t know what somebody is going through. It’s important to find support – to stand tall and proud.
My artwork is my identity – it is my safe place to express myself and how I feel. Art is therapeutic. Art helped me talk. It helps me find my identity.
Eden Menta is a member of Arts Project Australia and a participating artist in Portrait 23: Identity. They are an emerging artist working across various mediums including photography, collage, drawing and painting. Their work is instinctive and moment. Edgy and instilled with wry humour, their practice encompasses diffability, the macabre as well as observations of the world around them.
