Shia Conlon

“Sites of Dreaming” is a multidisciplinary project documenting the process of hormonal replacement therapy with myself and various transgender people in Finland. This project began when I had to make the choice between a DIY hormonal replacement therapy or the Finnish medical system which, due to the current Trans Law, requires years of psychological testing and possible sterilization to access hormone replacement therapy.

Facing these options, I took it upon myself to start my own journey outside of the medical system and began documenting the experience. During this process, I learned through my own Transgender community how to take care of the many resulting changes that HRT brings. This was an eye-opening experience and one that often made me wish for more accessible information surrounding transgender healthcare.

This project was born of that wish, to make a resource that holds a photographic representation of a trans community and the many ways we take of each other when legislation won’t. “Sites of Dreaming” is both an artwork and a community resource, made by, with, and for the queer community. It is a space for the LGBTQI+ community to see themselves. It forgoes showcasing the often highlighted traumatic moments of navigating healthcare and instead aims to amplify the quieter moments and the mundane domesticity of queer life which often go unrepresented.