Outie and Innie traces the shifting boundary between the self we inhabit and the self we present, where identity emerges as a continuous oscillation rather than a fixed state.

Outie and Innie emerged from an initial collaboration with queer actor Xiaodi, who was asked to be photographed across three constructed states: one emphasizing her body, one presenting her in masculine style clothing, and another reflecting her everyday appearance. This requirement, an imposed fluidity of presentation tied to role, context, and expectation, prompted a deeper inquiry into the conditions of performativity embedded not only in acting, but in daily life.

To what extent are we continuously performing versions of ourselves in order to be legible within different social frameworks? For Xiaodi, the transitions between these visual states did not simply reflect aesthetic variation, but revealed subtle dissonances between embodiment and identification. The body became something to be adjusted, directed, and read, rather than simply inhabited.

From this starting point, the project expands into a broader investigation of how identity is negotiated through layers of presentation, particularly within queer experience. Outie and Innie thus begins with a practical photographic brief, but unfolds into a reflection on the quiet, persistent labor of aligning the self with the roles one is asked, or required, to play.

 The project resonates with the experiences of many Chinese queer artists who operate between expression and discretion. Artistic practice frequently becomes a site where questions of gender, embodiment, and identity can be explored indirectly through metaphor, atmosphere, and personal narrative, rather than through explicit declaration.