In this work, I am interested in mapping my identity and experiences as a queer person onto material objects. I think of the materials that I work with as bodies or actors, and through the application of layered surface treatments, I am able to make those materials perform identities. I manipulate the surface of jewelry objects and conflate the qualities of preciousness and commonness in ways that force materials like silver, gold, and pearls to imitate their own appearances and value. In doing this, I aim to investigate and challenge the meaning of authenticity, legitimacy, and belonging.
   The term “invert” stems from the now-discredited theory of sexual inversion and refers to queer individuals. The theory posited that all human beings had inborn gendered traits or natures, and queerness was the result of those traits’ reversal. To be inverted can suggest not only a state of reversal, but to be turned inside out. A fake pearl is a plastic bead imitating a genuine pearl, and that fake pearl has been turned inside out such that genuine pearls imitate plastic beads.