"Pearly saints" Postcard
For their very existence, pearls depend on grit. They are an act of resistance, of stubborn growth. After an irritant enters their shell, molluscs secrete layers of stuff that turns into nacre (mother-of-pearl), encasing the “intruder” in an iridscent prison. Don’t let their lustre fool you: pearls have seen some shit. And they have thrived because of it.
In the Middle Ages, pearls symbolized the soul, purity, virginity, and power. Fast forward to the late 1870s: Henry Croft, an orphan street-sweeper in London, festooned his suit with pearl buttons, becoming the first Pearly King, working-class royalty whose members dedicate themselves to raising money for charity. Croft needed a way to get people’s attention when raising money for charity. The pearl’s lustre did just that. Ethical aesthetics. Politicized radiance.
This is the lineage we point to, with this postcard. Miniatures from MxComan’s cover art for the Trans and Genderqueer Subjects volume - a non-binary saint in the roundel + their trans colleague in the rectangular frame - take centre stage here. May their lustrous light shine on us all.
✞ 1 x postcard
Obsessed with this design? (We are too.) Both saints are available as individual designs on the collection’s sticker sheet, and together on wrapping paper.
For their very existence, pearls depend on grit. They are an act of resistance, of stubborn growth. After an irritant enters their shell, molluscs secrete layers of stuff that turns into nacre (mother-of-pearl), encasing the “intruder” in an iridscent prison. Don’t let their lustre fool you: pearls have seen some shit. And they have thrived because of it.
In the Middle Ages, pearls symbolized the soul, purity, virginity, and power. Fast forward to the late 1870s: Henry Croft, an orphan street-sweeper in London, festooned his suit with pearl buttons, becoming the first Pearly King, working-class royalty whose members dedicate themselves to raising money for charity. Croft needed a way to get people’s attention when raising money for charity. The pearl’s lustre did just that. Ethical aesthetics. Politicized radiance.
This is the lineage we point to, with this postcard. Miniatures from MxComan’s cover art for the Trans and Genderqueer Subjects volume - a non-binary saint in the roundel + their trans colleague in the rectangular frame - take centre stage here. May their lustrous light shine on us all.
✞ 1 x postcard
Obsessed with this design? (We are too.) Both saints are available as individual designs on the collection’s sticker sheet, and together on wrapping paper.
For their very existence, pearls depend on grit. They are an act of resistance, of stubborn growth. After an irritant enters their shell, molluscs secrete layers of stuff that turns into nacre (mother-of-pearl), encasing the “intruder” in an iridscent prison. Don’t let their lustre fool you: pearls have seen some shit. And they have thrived because of it.
In the Middle Ages, pearls symbolized the soul, purity, virginity, and power. Fast forward to the late 1870s: Henry Croft, an orphan street-sweeper in London, festooned his suit with pearl buttons, becoming the first Pearly King, working-class royalty whose members dedicate themselves to raising money for charity. Croft needed a way to get people’s attention when raising money for charity. The pearl’s lustre did just that. Ethical aesthetics. Politicized radiance.
This is the lineage we point to, with this postcard. Miniatures from MxComan’s cover art for the Trans and Genderqueer Subjects volume - a non-binary saint in the roundel + their trans colleague in the rectangular frame - take centre stage here. May their lustrous light shine on us all.
✞ 1 x postcard
Obsessed with this design? (We are too.) Both saints are available as individual designs on the collection’s sticker sheet, and together on wrapping paper.
Source: ✞ MxComan, "We have always been here" (2021), commissioned as cover art for Trans and Genderqueer Subjects, ed. by Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt (Amsterdam University Press, 2021)
Size: A6 (105 x 148 mm)
Spec: Recycled silk 350 gsm / velvet lamination to front / square corners
Shelfmark: TGQS.1.P4
Special thanks
With big thanks to Ségolène Gence for her design work on the earliest iteration of this collection
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Listen to the Trans + Genderqueer Saints playlist, featuring the finest tracks by trans, genderqueer + non-binary artists
