In 2022 I produced my first public mural at the Playground in Braamfontein. My mural celebrated queer identities in the making of space and also saw me experimenting with the street-art application known as wheat-paste.
PROLOGUE takes its cue from that. It continues the exploration of wheat-paste as an application and further maps my experimentation with it in establishing a style that merges painting, digital illustration and street art. It also returns to themes around the queer (gay) experience and how it contributes to contemporary culture.
This collection of works employs proximity to engage the space of the body. Gesture prompts familiarity and together it frames a queer experience. But with this negotiation of space it calls for this experience to be a shared one. And so it is here where the viewer is called to partake and become an active player in the artwork.
The mural is a long durational performance piece that encourages the viewer to engage and partake in the act of revealing and exposing the layers that make up the artwork (de-collage). In it, the viewer is encouraged to remove a part of the artwork thereby becoming part of the process, all while the process of making is slowly being revealed. This is my way of making and sharing space where space is given.
