This work seeks to envision conceptions of motherhood and reproduction beyond the bounds of heteropatriarchal socioeconomic systems. Comprising a white gauze panel suspended from the ceiling in a spiral with an altar-like structure at its center, maybe pearls are like honey to her reimagines the ancient Greek festival known as Thesmophoria, an annual three-day series of rituals dedicated to Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, carried out exclusively by women. The rituals themselves, known only to the participants, celebrated Persephone’s return to her mother following her abduction to the Underworld.

Responding to current state-sanctioned violence towards queer and trans bodies, as well as pervasive attacks on contraception and reproductive technologies, this work marks a desire for queer feminine solidarity and joy in the face of violence. The title, maybe pearls are like honey to her, uses the ethical ambiguity of retrieving honey from bees or pearls from oyster shells as an analogy for the surgical process of retrieving eggs from the ovaries, either to fertilize and implant as embryos in the uterus or to preserve for a future pregnancy.

Fusing imagined pasts and speculative futures, maybe pearls are like honey to her suggests the potential for queer feminist ecologies of care.