Caretaking
'Caretaking' is the name of an ongoing body of work exploring queer futurity through the language of occultism and the exploration of cruising grounds where men have sex with men. It looks at cruising spaces where intimacy, sex, relationships, personal and collective trauma are reformatted and new narratives of queer sex utopias are spun.
The body of work also looks at historical moments of queer defiance during witch hunts and draws unexpected parallels between men who have sex with men, witches, witchcraft and demonology.
'Caretaking' currently comprises of the following artworks: 'The King's Jester', 'Untitled', 'Dog Monster (BESTA)', 'Contract (Signed by Satanas, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Elimi, Leviathan, Astaroth and others)', 'Instructed : Pray', 'Rapture' and a short film called 'Baa'. Works span from 2021 to 2022.
The King's Jester
Untitled
Found objects in cruising grounds, cast in wax and blended with essential oils.
Dog Monster
(Besta)
‘Dog Monster (BESTA)' is an analogue divinatory machine from inside which a participant can pull out a card of an object found in a cruising space for pondering upon. It is an invitation to engage with queer sex utopias and an opportunity to question and expand on them.
‘Dog Monster (BESTA)’ is a creature that lurks in the dark and pulses with light to attract participants. It alludes to ‘whoring’ and the ‘slut’ as utopian practices as the creature repeatedly gets entered by strangers and makes us think about the hands that ‘fisted’ BESTA before us. Thus the artwork is also transported into the realm of queer monstruosity, disrupting categories and space. Participants ‘fist’ a monster and thus become monstrous - and queer - by appendage.
Contract
Signed by Satanas, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Elimi, Leviathan, Astaroth and others
'Contract' (Signed by Satanas, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Elimi, Leviathan, Astaroth and others)' is a textile based piece of work that aims to connect and find parallels between personal trauma, cruising grounds and moments of historical queer defiance. Based on a 1635 alleged pact signed between French priest Urbain Grandier and several demonic entities and court evidence against alleged witch Elizabeth Clarke, the work maps temporal spaces where contracts, trauma and sex are negotiated. The tapestry combines illustration, Google street view screenshots, photography and an adaptation of the Portuguese tapestry making technique of ‘Arraiolos’ from the middle ages.