ELM Foundation 2023 Youth PRIDE Art Exhibition

©River Kim, Found Family, 2023
I created “Found Family” in a time when it felt like everything was falling apart: I had just given a presentation at my human rights class on the legislative attacks on LGBTQIA+ people across the nation, and especially amongst transgender youth, and was in bed seeing yet another testimony from a legislator about why I didn’t deserve the same rights as any other young person using public restrooms, playing on sports teams, learning about my history in school, or accessing medical care that could save my life. Art has always been a respite that I could turn to no matter what was going on in my life or in the world—whether I had the words for them yet or not—so I began to draw without a clue as to what might emerge.
“Found Family” depicts me and two other young trans people I am continually in awe of and can call family. We met while working at a program that empowers queer youth of color to explore their identities and learn to build safe spaces for other queer youth with intersecting identities. I feel the most proud around them, and have learned what it means to be proud thanks to them. Pride is radical existence: the courage to come with all parts of yourself. That is why the pride flag hangs prominently in the background: so it is an unmistakably queer artwork even at a passing glance. Upon closer inspection, however, there are hallmarks of queerness that we have historically had to use to identify each other, undercover from a world that violently did not accept us: nose rings, eyebrow slits, and symbols like the tattoo on the figure to the right, like “if you know, you know.” Pride for me is as intricately tied to the community as it is to the self, which is why I drew both myself and members of my community. I hope it is communicated with all three figures leaning in towards each other and facing outwards and overlapping that the viewer is, too, included in the circle and is welcome.
Pride is about uplifting others just as much as yourself. My wish is that people see the artwork and feel seen and empowered knowing that they are not alone, and will always have people by their side advocating for them and ready to stand with them—especially the parts of themselves they have had to hide.