Open gallery
Voidpunk Utopia is an exhibition featuring ink and charcoal drawings. Monochrome ink works devise fantasies of a better life, and large colorful drawings transform these fantasies into dream worlds that blur the lines between subject and object. In these works, elaborate fashions, unusual items, and alien festivities form utopias that address queer and autistic desires. In this way, they question the boundaries between entities and commodities and imagine an existence that thrives without a clear sense of identity.
The art also utilizes the playful science fiction and fantasy imagery of the voidpunk subculture to find joyous intersections between othered identities. Voidpunk, a subculture that unifies autistic, non-binary, transsexual, aromantic and asexual individuals, was founded on the common experience of being designated as not human or sub-human by a larger culture. The subculture in turn embraces non-humanity and non-human figures such as robots, aliens, ghosts and monsters in order to reclaim a sense of dignity.
The works of Voidpunk Utopia realize my connection with this subculture by meticulously expanding on my personal imaginary worlds. I see voidpunk as a tool for exploring identity, and appreciate its ability to transgress the boundaries that often divide queer and neuroqueer identities. My work embraces impossible worlds because they bring together my various identities (which are often characterized as separate experiences), and they acknowledge my fantasies and desires rather than pathologizing them. By embracing desire as an empathetic force, my figures express an agency and love for life that is often characterized as lesser than or non-existent in queer and autistic individuals.