Fran Janal
she/they
Queens, NY, US
Fran Janal is a Transfemme, Jewish, futurist sculptor and wearables designer based in Brooklyn, NY. With a wide materials background, she shifts from utilizing glass, textiles, wood, metal and ceramics. She developed a concentration in Craft Studies and Feminist Technoscience at the NYU Gallatin School for Individualized Study, namely studying clothing design, 3D modeling, and feminist technoscience. Since then she has been utilizing glass in her main technical exploration, recently completing the Starworks Glass Resident Internship. Utilizing these perspectives, her work explores transness, bodily interactions with technology, and possible futures beyond facism.
“This work is part of a series of Gender Monsters and Beastly Woman. This series tries to capture moments of transformation and explore the truth of creaturehood in humanity. These creatures are trans and sexual in nature, driven from the excitement towards life and nature and clinging to for dear life. In the face of increased digital technofication, my work is a meditation, drawing me back to my bodies physical experience of emotional change.”
@francesajanaldi @whimsykink
How does your work relate to the theme of flourish(ing)?
“The inspiration for my sculpture and carvings are drawn from the past years of recovering from the loss of my father and mother while simultaneously medically transitioning, namely the lessons reared from walking through each respective portal of spiritual transformations. These works are a product of a time when I was not flourishing but was trying to move to a better place. This work not about the experience of flourishing but rather what it might take to feel it."
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Francely Flores
"HELL BENT", "Champlevé enamel on oxidized copper, brass findings, silver rivets, 4.5” x 3.5”, 2024"How does your creative practice allow you to flourish (grow, thrive, blossom)?
“The creative practice is a spiritual practice. I have an understanding that creatively interacting with my world through materials and relationships is energizing and releases healing energy. It allows my body to relax in ways that I forgot were possible and think of novel possibilities that feel like seeing through time. My creative practice has taught me companionship, autonomy, confidence, and whimsy by continual being faced with and overcoming creative blocks. There is a lot of forces in the world that tell you things are not possible, being a creative you have to muster the energy to say otherwise. That alone gives me hope of flourishing. Flourishing is aspirational and something that we have to keep moving toward, not something given or stumbled upon. Creativity is just the image , internal driving force that guides you toward those ends. ”
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Francely Flores
As a queer+ artist, what would you like to see and/or what do you need in order to flourish during this time?
“The current photos are have a tending of the planned mounting. I will carve the mounting board in the coming weeks but was not finished in time for this submission. Thank you for your understanding.”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“My experiences with sisterhood and connections to feminine community give me the sense of flourishing. A sense of communal care and understanding that can’t be expressed in words, but makes it self known in glances and gestures. Moving in ways that is toward helping others flourish and seeing others move the same way is what the world needs. I want to see us, as queer people and people of the earth, become a network of mothers. Let it be understood that when we speak our mind bravely it is for the betterment of the whole, and let it be felt that in order to ask for what you need you might have to give it first. Casual, spontaneous moments of showing up cast this feeling most predominantly. ”
NYCJW24 @ UrbanGlass, Simon Leung
[queerphoria]v4 @ ECU Symposium
