Artist's Statement

                   

Growing up, I often identified with monsters more than mortals. As a lifelong fan of anime, horror, and fantasy, I matured to realize that many of the villainous creatures from the genre films I adored were representations of the cultural realities and classes that its creators feared or didn’t understand. My experience as a filmmaker reveals how biases manifest as monsters in our work. As a Black, queer, transgender artist, my intersecting identities being portrayed as forms of monstrosity motivates me to create genre works that praise the power and beauty of subjects that many would consider to be otherworldly beasts. As a trans artist who has undergone a bodily transition, I create fantastical characters that express their identity through physical transformations. My work begs the question — how can monstrous forces be seen as sources of authority rather than beings to be slain?

                   I create large-format Afrosurrealist portraits of creatures amid cathartic scenes that allow viewers to confront taboo topics by encountering them as entities. I blend bodies and worlds by splicing humans with parts from unlikely animals, objects, and organisms — morphing them into beings that embody conditions and social phenomena through a mutation of flesh. These works are created through the use of acrylics, clay, resin and diverse mediums on upcycled canvases. Poems often accompany each piece to express these realities with more dimensionality. In all, I make art that intends to transmute monstrosity into meaning while exploring physical transformation as a means to reveal a deeper truth.

Katharsis by Kamil Oshundara