Artist, writer, and curator Leila Weefur combines film and architectural installation to examine systems of belonging in Black and queer lives. The Chapel of Becoming is a video installation and transcendental space dedicated to and in celebration of the Transgender community. It resists spiritual practices centered on cis-gendered and able-bodied exceptionalism. The material making up The Chapel—like the trans body—has markings of reconstruction and a capacity to hold itself in its raw state.
“Come to Be” on the glass wall is a rearrangement of the word and philosophy “Becoming,” a theoretic anchor in Trans Futurity and answer to José Esteban Muñoz’s call for “collective political becoming.” The arrangement is an invitation to viewers outside to enter The Chapel of Becoming and a reminder to the Trans community that becoming signifies endless possibilities in defining gender.
This public artwork is a part of Bay Area Now 9 and is supported by the Office of Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
Mission Street, YBCA
Leila Weefur
b. Oakland
Lives and works in Oakland
The Chapel of Becoming, 2023
Multichannel video
Courtesy the artist
