ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice primarily deals with queer identity politics and sensitivity around language, presented in various time-based media (film, performative lecture, computer game, sound) or site-responsive installations. I am working with formative narratives and educational performances, lectures and sound works, which has always supported my drive to dig deeper and connect the mental dots and political matters I am passionate about. Through consolidating my position as a trans* nonbinary individual and clarifying how it influences my thinking and approach to communication with my surroundings, I have been able to grow more confident and deepen my strategies for conveying the standpoints and hypotheses I examine in my practice with the goal to shift the discourse around queer issues in my domestic Central European environment. Whether it is using the format of a TED talk to educate my peers on all the 101 that queerness has to offer and needs to be integrated and normalised in our society, or a dancing elf as the manifestation of gender euphoria depicted in a music video; shifting, twisting, deconstructing and reassembling the narrative forms the base of my doing and desires. Having exhausted any need to explain myself and my identity, I am interested in exploring gender as a societal construction comparable to mythology through creating perhaps more fictional narratives, to boost synergy between different realities and fantasy and thus creating a new, broader and speculative reality that welcomes the weird and wonderful with open arms. The act of writing also forms an essential part in my practice. On one hand, it is the primary connector of my multilingual upbringing, on the other hand a way in which I can communicate the issues that are closest to me. Being trans* and a part of the queer community of this generation, language has become a fundamental component of how we make sense of our experience in a world that continues to be ignorant towards us. It is the active extension of language that provides a clear path for us to grow, giving us the power to name our experience outside of what is known to us, and more importantly, giving us a voice. This intensive connection between queer issues and language is the main reason writing forms such a significant element of my practice.

Examples for inspirational resources I harvest from would for one be artist Tony Cokes and his social critique concerning popular culture and mass entertainment, or Jenny Hval’s writing and her exploring the philosophy behind witchcraft as a form of feminism. With the discourse around queer and trans* issues being closest to me, it is artists like Sin Wai Kin and their work with language that explores the limits and boundaries of our identity that shifts with each language used, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and her creation of a utopian world centering Black trans* lives all visualised through text in a computer game, or Wu Tsang and Paul Maheke that focus more on the bodily manifestation of queerness. They all take on a queer activist approach in their art works and include fragments and components from their personal beliefs and lives, while not necessarily making it the center of their practice.

The themes of my practice are usually rooted in a thorough theoretical research process, either coming across them by chance or intentionally harvesting inspiration from my own experiences and my surroundings. A new research topic I would like to develop further is the deconstruction of known and trusted archetypes both borrowed from popular culture and the complexities of history. In this case it is the Cowboy and the Witch, both stained by layers of stereotypical simplification and pop cultural misuse. I am interested in bringing these two characters and their narratives together and intertwining their speculative destiny.

Whether it is following Adrienne Maree Brown’s politics of “healing and happiness” that she discusses in her book Pleasure Activism, attempting to make social justice pleasurable, or reaching for queer theory classics as are the works of Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Jack Halberstam or Paul B. Preciado; the principals of my practice lie in the combination of theoretical research and knowledge, fiction, as well as deeply political and personal matters.

As I am still in an early stage of my being as an artist and I see the many ways in which I can grow and learn, my main focus right now is to do just that. By connecting a fine arts and a contemporary art theory MA degree, I could possibly discover new approaches to my practice to build on. While I will continue to work with film, I am also working to move my art practice into the physical/material sphere: the manifestation and extension of queerness and the self in objects, such as furniture (architect* Eileen Gray as reference). My long-term goal would be to continue to reinforce present as well as new narratives and bring the issues that are close to me and art interested audiences together, perhaps contributing to even the slightest shift in perception of the matters mentioned above.