Shaped from thousands of straight pins, In Her Own Words was created to honor filmmaker Lana Wachowski’s experiences as a young adult. The piece is a sculptural meditation on Wachowski’s feelings of pain, isolation, and depression as a result of understanding herself as transgender when she was a teenager. When Wachowski received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award, she delivered a riveting speech. She explained how her suicide attempt as a teenager was thwarted on a train platform by being truly seen by another human being. Wachowski said “I don’t know why he wouldn’t look away, all I know is that because he didn’t I am still here.”
![](https://format.creatorcdn.com/390d1e83-363c-4488-9854-b0928b93f2dc/0/0/0/0,0,3000,1673,3000,1200/0-0-0/e453329d-2ab9-49f1-97b7-7862ff946e82/1/1/Broken.jpg.jpg?fjkss=exp=2037538189~hmac=c12140fb78179cc644ed01827bd50dcf11fb23e7967b0d6982eb1c05ed728346)
![](https://format.creatorcdn.com/390d1e83-363c-4488-9854-b0928b93f2dc/0/0/0/0,0,4003,2210,4003,1200/0-0-0/9044320e-165a-4889-96b6-784b342334d6/1/1/Wrong+%281%29.jpg.jpg?fjkss=exp=2037538189~hmac=2d32c4c1d879a4956f75658b70d04df8ac8c1bf9465986a7c5feaaef1df1d0cb)
![](https://format.creatorcdn.com/390d1e83-363c-4488-9854-b0928b93f2dc/0/0/0/0,0,4695,1885,4695,1200/0-0-0/438e033b-c695-4a80-932a-b9e16b45b35f/1/1/un.jpg.jpg?fjkss=exp=2037538189~hmac=44e6f834257e1fe69cb2bb67455ff02ee7cdff4bfc7101615f980ab244619c51)