"Pair of my Jeans/Flesh of my Flesh" by David Collins

acrylic paint, applique/patched fabric scraps, dimensions 33 x 37 x 3 cm (2024)

“Pair of my Jeans/Flesh of my Flesh” is an homage both to cutting things out of your life and to cutting the bottoms off of trousers when turning them up: clothing alteration is a necessary skill for the lower-class transsexual.

David Collins is a painter and multimedia artist. He graduated from the Ruskin School of Art BFA programme in 2023, and is currently based in Leeds. His art is primarily focused on unfixed or transitional states of being. This includes the experience of being queer, trans, and working class; it also includes the people and things you see in dreams, with their surreal colours, soft focus, and secrets tucked into corners. It is about also the presence or absence of warmth and safety: you can be safe inside of a memory, even a painful one.