Tell us about yourself:
I’m in my third year of studying visual art at QUT and over the past three years, I’ve accumulated at least 16 different bubble tea membership cards. I’m pretty sure I’ve typed “hmmm” heaps more than I’ve typed “yes,” and I have a penchant for political science-fiction.
Current status: online - complaining as usual.
Describe your practice:
The body is in focus - specifically the queer body. Some of my works are playful and other works act in greater defiance of demarcated ordering. My practice involves inspecting the abject-queer-uncanny body and the menstruation taboo. I’m drawn to food, keepsakes, needlework/ textiles and digital media to create sculptures or installations, while my performances are a cathartic, somewhat transgressive abject-queer enactment of Biblical narratives. I look at interactive installation and performances as a communion between subjects, where each entity is offered a chance to reflect on its own state of consciousness.
What other artists and contexts inform your work ?
I’m feeling extremely encouraged by artists whose works include real menstrual blood. So the abject, menstruation-specific works by artists Bee Hughes, Rhine Bernardino or Casey Jenkins each emboldened my work. I’m really intrigued by some interactive works from Félix González-Torres because they are so balanced: both generously playful yet politically confronting.
What inspires you ?
Occasionally I’ll let credulity guide me and waste a day thinking out loud. I’m only ever inspired once I feel at peace.. watching anime, taking detailed notes on a book I’m reading, trying on my shoes with nowhere to go, organising my skincare draw. Sometimes I need to reconnect so I’ll pick up one of my Nanna Benedetta’s journals and open google translate. I’ve been spending a lot of my time with needlework - a skill taught to me by some of the strongest women I know.
How has isolation impacted your art-making ?
I’m an introverted only child, so on one hand I’m in my element. But as a queer person and as an artist - I want and need fellowship. I’m extremely comfortable making art at home but not loving isolation. I try not to measure my productivity but since my cracked glass phone screen started cutting my fingers ~through the layer of tape~ my screen time has actually been down 25%.
How did you translate your practice into the digital sphere ?
I returned to my first-year infatuation with interactive and playful work to form an extremely subtle representation of the queer-uncanny. esc fits somewhere between a daydreamed wonderland and a padded cell where time is immaterial, death is nonexistent, there’s no winning or losing, and the path ahead is hidden. The stylised landscape involves the familiar aesthetic from “8-bit” games like Mario or the stylised online game Syobon Action. esc is bound by established borders, yet it defies traditional gaming “rules.” However, the artwork itself is only produced once the page visitor becomes a player and enters the micro-utopia of esc… Truthfully, I just wanted the game to hug a player through the screen but also alienate them due to its excessive convolute and obscurity.
See more of Isabella's work on their website