By Jaime Lopez

Verge Editor

An exhibit chronicling a man’s transition from female to male is currently on display at the Tarble Arts Center.

The exhibit by artist Clarissa Sligh is titled “Jake in Transition,” and it takes an exclusive look at a woman’s sex change.

In the photos, a very vulnerable Jake shows the gruesome and exhausting process a person goes through when trying to change their identity.

Jake faced complex cosmetic surgery and the copious conception of painkillers combined with psychological challenges that come when trying to forge a new identity.

One picture shows the cuts running along Jake’s chest after his double mastectomy, and the caption overlaid on the photograph reads, “I just want to be becoming more visibly outside what I feel like I am on the inside.”

Despite the painful surgical procedure, the photos continue to show Jake as he happily becomes accustomed to his new body, to a new life.

He begins to lift weights, but still shows the pain he goes through whenever administered doses of testosterone in the rear end.

Michael Watts, director of the Tarble Arts Center, wrote in an email that the exhibit was chosen because it fits the EIU Center for Humanities’ current theme of “Authenticity.”

One photo features Jake pondering over the labels that will help him create a concrete identity.

In the photo, he is making himself a sandwich, and a caption over it states Jake’s struggle to defend his decision.

“I’m not a lesbian, I’m a straight man,” the caption reads.

The quote went on to say that his friends treat him like the enemy, like the stranger.

Other photos depict Jake laying in bed nude after he had a silicon testicle implanted a second time.

The gallery jumps to Jake’s wedding in 2000 where the caption states he marries a woman who identifies as heterosexual.

Jake smiles as he poses for his wedding picture.

Then the gallery takes a step backward in Jake’s transition and presents him as a female, and a caption above his head features all of the questions Jake had before deciding to go through with the cosmetic surgery that would change his life forever.

Watts said he considers Sligh’s gallery a serious atttempt to understand and symphatize with themes that may seem foreign at most times.

“My impression of Clarissa Sligh is that here is a serious artist working with serious and challenging themes, but in a very humanizing way,” Watts said. “The artwork is approachable by people who are not necessarily ‘up’ on contemporary art if you are willing to step up and consider the subject matter in an open way.”

Sligh’s attempt to document a man’s transition from woman to man will be on display at the Tarble Arts Center from Aug. 18 to Sept. 23.

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.