Sadie Malks
They/Them
Boston, MA
Sadie Malks is a Boston-based artist currently pursuing a BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Ceramics Department (graduating May 2026). Originally from Missouri, Sadie received an Associates in Art at St. Louis Community College.
My work surrounds the transgender modified body. I'm interested in the wound as a healing experience, using body modification as a form of radical bodily autonomy and expression. Through the lens of gender transition, I’m questioning if pain and discomfort have to be negative: how these experiences can be ones of comfort. With the jewelry object I’m exploring the unnoticed byproducts of these experiences: sensations, scars, and bruising. I’m reflecting on the perceived notions of what a transgender body is; how one can unapologetically love and reclaim their body through nontraditional means.
sadiemalks.com
How does your creative practice reflect your experience of living and making as a BIPOC and/or 2SLGBTQIA+ maker?
“My work surrounds the transgender modified body. As a transgender person, I’m using body modification as a form of radical bodily autonomy and expression. I'm investigating how body modification and the physical and mental states of transitioning collide. Through the lens of gender transition, I’m questioning if pain and discomfort have to be negative: how these experiences can be ones of comfort. I’m reflecting on the perceived notions of what a transgender body is supposed to be and what a trans body is; how one can unapologetically love and reclaim their body through nontraditional means.”
"Phases of Healing (Left to right: Healed, Crust, Irritated)" Anodized Titanium, Steel Wire, Ready-Made Steel Clicker Rings 6"x".5"x1mm 2026"Sensations From A Hook Pull" Vitreous Enamel, Copper, Powder Coat, Steel wire 5"x5"x3/8” 2025"Phases of Healing (Left to right: Healed, Crust, Irritated)' Vitreous Enamel, Copper, Steel Wire 1.5x3x.5 in (individually) 2025What techniques, stories, or materials have been passed down to you, and how are you reimagining them in the present?
“I have been starting to think about the histoires of piercing and body modification, Steel and Titanum are very common body jewelry materials. I'm also very aware of the fact the modern American piercing industry started in the gay and leather scence and that comes through in my work, espically with the "Guess Where?" phase, a slogan made into pins and other items by Jim Ward, one of the pionners of the industry. I think about copper as flesh and they ways we handle it, piercing, and altering it.”
How does your work honor those who came before you while forging new pathways for the future?
“I like to nod to queer piercing histories of the past, but I'm looking to further how modification outside of medical transio can be empowring and affirming, this is especially important to me during this time, when trans autonomy is beinf stripped away, I am finding ways I feel affirmed though things that cannot be taken from me.”
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, research, etc.
“Most of the work I've submitted is enamel and I am also a ceramic figurative scuptor, I found my jewlery practice though making adornements for that work. I am really drawn to the mateiral similarites of these items. The way on copper these items become a reflection of skin and the memories all materials hold. Through my jewlery work I am able to explore questions in my practice I never would have tought to ask just working with clay, adorning the object shifting into making objects of adormnet, how what we wear can be powerful and impowering.”
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist