Untitled (Woman) depicts a trans-woman experiencing the event of having her bandages removed for the very first time after she has undergone feminising facial surgery (FFS). The woman in the painting happens to be Cantons making the painting a self-portrait. Cosmetic surgery is something that is being undertaken every single day by men and women all over the world and one might well imagine that it acts as a way to boost their mental health and help them to feel better about their appearance. For Cantons the issue of undertaking cosmetic FFS was that it offered her the opportunity to see herself more closely as she understood herself to be without the effects that testosterone had had making her face more masculine. The surgery —undertaken privately at Cantons’s expense in October 2010— was speculative and a risk and a gamble but fortunately the result was positive and lead to an immeasurably improving of her mental health and day-to-day life —no longer did Cantons look in the mirror and see a face that appeared to be masculine and in which she did not recognise herself. Referencing Cantons’s large scale t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶g̶e̶n̶d̶e̶r̶woman series portraits, Untitled (Woman) pays tribute to an array of art historical traditions and genres drawing together elements of Old master portraiture and modern art while bridging the line between the conceptual and figurative. Being openly transgender continues to be dangerous and potentially life threatening.
In the 12 months leading up to 30th September 2023, 320 trans and gender-diverse people were reported killed globally including Brianna Ghey on the UK. And those are only the homicides that record the victim as trans. The vast majority of those killed (94%) were trans women or trans-feminine people. The Trans Murder Monitoring report has been released every year since 2008. Since the project began 15 years ago, they have recorded more than 4,600 deaths. There are still countries that do not keep records of whether the victim was trans. Even if a trans person avoids being murdered, there are challenges to being open about one’s circumstance, to live day-to-day, just to keep a job, a home, stay healthy and live an authentic and happy life. Many trans and gender-diverse people are shunned and ostracised by family and friends when they come out as trans and the community has a very high suicide rate. Whilst there are laws in the UK and a few other countries to protect the rights of transgender people, up to a point, many places in the world are not accepting of transgender people’s presence. London’s July 2023 dedicated 5th Trans+ Pride march saw a record estimated 25,000-35,000 attend. For the first time Cantons saw the BBC and papers such as the Evening Standard join the British Vogue online reporting on the event. Hope is more vital than ever.
