Sofia Trujillo – Honors Exhibition

Sofia Trujillo

With,In

APRIL 21 – APRIL 26, 2025

Honor’s Thesis Exhibition – Mezzanine Gallery

What challenges or experiences do individuals face as a result of being born with a uterus? I found myself asking this question, over and over again, as I navigated college and encountered increasingly complex issues with my reproductive system. These experiences forced me to confront the very real physiological phenomena happening with my body.”With,In,” an experiential installation, is my attempt at responding to this critical question that has loomed over my upperclassman years—an artistic exploration of the struggles, vulnerabilities, and shared experiences of those born with a uterus.

My journey through these personal challenges culminated in a transformative event during the summer of 2023 that forever altered my perspective on bodily autonomy. During my time in the emergency room, I underwent a series of invasive yet medically necessary tests. Due to severe facility overcrowding, I was placed in a hallway, where my privacy was compromised — exposed to both patients and medical staff in transit. This deeply unsettling experience underscored the systemic neglect faced by individuals with similar reproductive systems, becoming the catalyst for a body of work that interrogates these critical, often overlooked realities within healthcare environments. This violation of privacy forced me to confront a fundamental question: how does one grapple with the reproductive realities happening to them, within them, beyond their control, because they were born with a uterus?

I find myself drawn to the experiential potential of installation art—environments that surround audiences, temporarily suspending their everyday reality and immersing them in an artistic vision that pauses time and envelops the viewer in its message. My approach to “With,In” allows me to more effectively dissect what it means to have control over one’s reproductive self, especially in the context of the critical sociopolitical landscape we inhabit today, examining what is happening to us, inside of us, and all around us simultaneously.

Using photography, sculpture, installation, and video art, I investigate the philosophical tension between determinism and sovereignty: the concept that everything is caused by previous events and natural laws versus human free will and independent authority over oneself. “With,In” plays on the duality of circumstance and situation. Various elements of the exhibition function to reflect this dichotomy through cause-and-effect relationships. The title itself operates on multiple levels: “within”—inside our bodies, and “with,in”—together in a shared journey. “With” represents togetherness, while “in” acknowledges that each experience remains individual and intimately personal. The two halves of the exhibition visually showcase this dualism: the isolation born of one’s own bodily realities against the camaraderie in community of individuals who have similar experiences and can stand in solidarity, with the goal of creating a collective memory of embodied experience.

While one half of the exhibition mimics clinical space, the opposing side presents a stark contrast. “uterUS” serves as the core of my exhibition, a reminder that we are united in our experiences, that we can engage in these conversations and rely on one another for support and validation. Drawing from the traditional Japanese art of Origami, I employ the crane as a symbolic form that collectively constructs a uterine shape. Cranes, themselves, embody longevity, hope, fertility, and family harmony—resonant metaphors for reproductive health discourse. This art form, which originated in 6th century China and became popular after the publication of the 1797 book Sen Bazuru Orikake (“How to Fold 1,000 Paper Cranes”), gained further significance through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima bomb survivor who ultimately succumbed to radiation-induced leukemia in 1955. Her legacy of folding paper cranes inspired a global movement associating this practice with places in need of healing. In “uterUS”, a social practice piece, a personal experience lies at the center. Each crane is a testimony from an individual born with a uterus responding to the questions: “What does it mean to be born with a uterus? What challenges or experiences have you faced with your reproductive system?” With over 100 responses, the cranes stand together signifying community, yet serving as a reminder that each is an individual recollection.

By creating this honors exhibition using mixed media artistic forms, I hope to catalyze dialogue and interconnect disparate narratives, serving as a testament to our collective experience through transparent discussion of authentic and personal realities. “With,In” invites viewers to contemplate both the sovereignty we seek over our bodies and the biological determinism that often circumscribes that autonomy, creating a space where individual struggles transform into collective understanding.

Artist Bio: 

Sofia Trujillo is a Studio Art major, double minoring in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. As an artist and writer, her work often explores intra and interpersonal relationships, the complexities within these dynamics, and the outcomes of such interactions. More recently, her art focuses on female identity and bodily autonomy. As an innovator, Sofia is constantly creating; she enjoys the challenges associated with bringing new ideas to life. Her greatest motivation as an artist is to spark conversations and break existing barriers that prevent individuals from engaging in critical discussions with one another. While studying art and writing for seven months in Florence, Italy, her approach to creating changed significantly as she recognized the lineage of artistic practice. Sofia believes that her time spent in the heart of the Renaissance movement transformed her relationship with the artistic world. Sofia’s interdisciplinary work has been featured in the 3to4 Ounces Literary Magazine and the Old Gold and Black, as well as multiple stArt Gallery and Hanes Art Gallery exhibitions. Sofia is honored to be a part of the WFU Arts community and looks forward to continuing her involvement as an alumna.