L—LEX
H—HILDERMAN
Weaving together traditional techniques in printmaking, sculpture, photography, written word, installation, and performance, Lex’s work engages concepts of identity, sentimentality, orientation, compulsion, and queering pathways forward. Alongside their personal interest in found objects and material, Lex’s artistic practice has turned to a more explicit conversation of clothing, magnifying their collection of clothing as an important tool in their identity formation.
Lex Hilderman is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the University of Calgary. They received their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture with a minor in Social Practice and Community Engagement, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology concentrating in Gender, Family, and Workplace Issues. They now reside in Mohkinstsis Treaty 7 Territory, also known as Calgary, Alberta. Lex has showcased with the Fem Assembly (AB), Calgary Animated Objects Society, and Arts Commons through the RBC Emerging Visual Artist Program. They have participated in the Agua Viva - Water Residency at Santa Rosa Art and Healing, and have an upcoming residency and solo exhibition at Stride Gallery (AB) in summer and fall of 2025. They have been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development Agency.
As a trans non-binary person, a curiosity and questioning surrounding the concepts of gender has been inherent to my journey. However, expanding further than gender alone, I am interested in identity itself; how identity, whether based on external factors like gender, occupation, religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, education, generation, or internal factors (physical appearance, sensations, emotions, genetics, health conditions) is experienced and informed by our physical surroundings. I weave together an interdisciplinary installation practice using found objects to explore our orientation to objects, looking into how identity is informed by the objects we surround ourselves with.
In my most current work supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development, I am considering my own transient identity in an exploration of clothing and objects through time. I am focusing on the sentimentality held in the seams of the fabrics that I have adorned myself with, and pointing to periods of stagnancy, transition, and renewal. Grief and mourning are important here. I find myself captured by a necessity to hold onto, to keep, and to remember what once was, working through what it means to let go when things no longer resonate or belong.
In this new body of work, I am creating a catalogue of my closet, researching, reflecting, and documenting the clothing I wore through various phases of my transition as a trans-non-binary individual. In this, I am bringing the clothing items into question as living art, as they come into a relationship with and are activated by my gendered body and other bodies to come.
Concurrently, I am creating a series of paper dolls using printmaking techniques – a gesture to historical processes of the original and beloved dolls of the industrial revolution. On this journey through clothing, I am inspired by the origins of my identity explorations, starting through play with paper dolls and dress-up games as a child. I am rekindling my childhood playtime and bringing my own body as a trans-non-binary person into conversation through representational play with materials and patterns. The clothing of these paper dolls is inspired by my delving into my own closet of expression, considering the clothing that has held sentiment and value to me in my expereinces through life.
In my most current work supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development, I am considering my own transient identity in an exploration of clothing and objects through time. I am focusing on the sentimentality held in the seams of the fabrics that I have adorned myself with, and pointing to periods of stagnancy, transition, and renewal. Grief and mourning are important here. I find myself captured by a necessity to hold onto, to keep, and to remember what once was, working through what it means to let go when things no longer resonate or belong.
In this new body of work, I am creating a catalogue of my closet, researching, reflecting, and documenting the clothing I wore through various phases of my transition as a trans-non-binary individual. In this, I am bringing the clothing items into question as living art, as they come into a relationship with and are activated by my gendered body and other bodies to come.
Concurrently, I am creating a series of paper dolls using printmaking techniques – a gesture to historical processes of the original and beloved dolls of the industrial revolution. On this journey through clothing, I am inspired by the origins of my identity explorations, starting through play with paper dolls and dress-up games as a child. I am rekindling my childhood playtime and bringing my own body as a trans-non-binary person into conversation through representational play with materials and patterns. The clothing of these paper dolls is inspired by my delving into my own closet of expression, considering the clothing that has held sentiment and value to me in my expereinces through life.