Marlon Hedrick

RS: In what ways have you experienced touch, or how has touch changed for you through the pandemic? I think I've always been a tactile person.
MH: Lack of touch during the pandemic has been difficult. Small rituals like hugging when you greet or goodbye are important to me. Showing love, care, and affection through these moments, in many ways, means everything. To have gone so long in isolation was challenging. I think there are ways in which I tried to reconcile this by having more experiences with my own body (via touch or otherwise). More stretching. More activity. Understanding my movements as my own. Self-massage.


RS: How do you define and or understand resilience as it relates to owning an identity that is marginalized?
MH: Resilience is acknowledging the hardship, celebration, and serendipity of the diasporic journey of your ancestors (immediate or distant) every single day. It is asking "How did I get here?" and showing appreciation for that question even though it takes a lifetime to figure out the answer(s).


RS: How does Austin play a role in your experience of touch and or resiliency?
MH: Austin is my home. It is where I bore roots and became nurtured as an artist and creative and etc. It is where I've hugged the most. Loved the most. Cared the most. It is where my community(ies) are and I've always been able to "keep going" here.


RS: What was your experience in creating your skin prints? 
MH: It was a way to see and connect with my body intellectually and abstractly. It was a way to think about my body that I had not previously done before. It made me discover things that I did not know (I have a dry spot on my right butt cheek that I need to lotion more).


RS: Where on your body did you choose to create your prints from? Why were/are these spots important to you?
MH: I made two prints. The first is on my knee. It was the first scar I'd ever gotten, from when I was playing in a cardboard box back in Saipan post-Christmas. The staple dug itself into my knee and I cried. Although I've always "checked in" with the scar over the years, these days I don't know where it is definitively. When I looked at my knee for this project, I actually wasn't sure it was still there. The second print is of my very first tattoo. I wanted to see what the process of ink and body was like in this format. It is of a buwan goddess who watches over me. I think I just want to see her up close.