For the first time, over 75 trans+ people from across the UK have come together to share meaningful images of their lives, culminating in a public artwork that celebrates transmasculinity.

SOFT/STRONG by artist Net Ember highlights personal, queer and redefined notions of masculinity, shaped through the trans+ experience. Photographs, pets, screenshots, meaningful objects and tattoos merge into an abstract ode to the shifting and uncategorisable nature of transness. Informed by over 250 submitted images, SOFT/STRONG makes both the shared and unique experiences of masculinity within transness visible, inviting reflection on what and who remains unseen in public and political discourse.

Ember’s own transmasculine identity has been profoundly shaped by communities in Southampton and London, as well as by UK-wide online spaces. SOFT/STRONG brings transmasculine people across the UK into dialogue, drawing on the life-affirming and, at times, life-saving connections fostered through online groups and social media. By translating these networks into a physical space, the work honours the people, relationships, and everyday moments that shape and affirm our sense of self.

Net Ember (they/them) is a trans nonbinary artist working between London and Southampton. Their practice spans sculpture, language, and digital technologies, materially exploring the plasticity of society and the plasticity of the self. Interrogating the ways contemporary media shape our identities, Ember considers how the technologies that document our lives also redefine them. Their work asks: how are we continually formed and transformed by the systems through which we are seen?

Thanks to all who have submitted images, including:
Southampton: PSO, DG, EP, JC, BB, DK, KC_VK, SE, and of course, EG
London: EHA, BG, GMJ, EB, RL, GLO, MQ, FD, KD
UK wide: RPF, KA, WS, T.F, JU, KEAP / KP, AP, L.A.B, O.PM, ZB, KH, NEW, Oli, F.J.Yarker, LLM, tzgs, tk, ET, NO, Csp, NB, MGC, EDJ, A.F, KM, N.B, Rudy, Valley, RF, B.S, ARM, Ty, OM, Ray, TB, A.B, RC, AC, EP, M.k, SJM, TH, ES, L.G.G, MG, MMS

The work of the following tattoo artists have been included: Tommy Burley, mister samo, Daisy Skelton, and Sven Eigengrau.

About the commission
Launched on Transgender Day of Visibility 2026, the Trans+ Visibility Open Call invited UK-based artists, designers and illustrators to create artworks exploring trans+ pride and gender diversity. Presented by Southampton Pride, in partnership with John Hansard Gallery, Trans Pride Southampton, GO! Southampton, City Eye, Breakout Youth and Beyond Reflections, the five shortlisted artworks were displayed in Guildhall Square during Southampton Summer Sessions this June.

Net Ember’s work was selected by public vote for a new commission: a vinyl artwork over 10 metres high, created through an open call for contributions from transmasculine people across the UK, on display on the windows of John Hansard Gallery and City Eye from August 2026.