#textaqueen

[dialogue-queered]

Image: Gandhi Returns (Self-Portrait), 2013 by TextaQueen using colour fibre-tipped pens

Analysis: In their piece Gandhi returns (Self-portrait), 2013, the father of Indian anti-colonialism is recast in the non-binary space. Texta/Gandhi is wounded and bloody, enfolded by the halo of a martyr; we imagine a martyr’s death. This piece is an invitation to decolonise our minds from binary gender and the influence of religion.

Source: Coleman, Claire. G. (2020), Aboriginal feminism and gender, April 9,<https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/aboriginal-feminism-and-gender/> viewed 14 August 2022.

*One artifact on show in the 2022 ‘Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection’ at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

TextaQueen awarded $80K commission to celebrate queer South Asian diaspora | ArtsHub Australia

For over twenty years, TextaQueen has been using fibre-tip markers to draw out complex politics of gender, race, sexuality and identity.

https://textaqueen.com

[textaqueen]

Having a postcard sale, because though I’m not really on holiday right now, I still like to send and receive them. Use code ISTILLGETCARDED at checkout for 30% off postcard sets at Textaqueen.bigcartel.com, or use link in bio and go to SHOP. Shipping out today and tomorrow, so may be there for that public holiday that’s coming up. #textaqueen #postcardsale #postcardset #unknownartist https://www.instagram.com/p/Brge9svFx6g/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lbvmqf7nsy96

[selfportraitsofcolor]

Arlene TextaQueen, b. 1975 Self Portrait (Textanude) Australia (2008) National Portrait Gallery Australia [Source]

The artist’s website says:

‘Texta’ is Australian for felt-tip marker and TextaQueen is Australia’s felt-tip super-hero.

TextaQueen is known for virtuosity in using the humble and unforgiving medium of fibre-tip marker to articulate complex politics of race, gender, sexuality and identity; exploring how visual and popular culture inform personal identity with increasing focus on the influence of ethno-cultural and colonial legacies on these dynamics.

...recent practice details the evolution of the artist’s identity as an Australian-born-Indian while using the image of self as a conduit for broader experiences of racism, exoticism and expectations of cultural authenticity.

[textaqueen]

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashina’s ‘Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice’ comes out in a few months from Arsenal Press and I’m honoured that my work ‘Roots’ features in the cover design. Leah’s writing further opened my heart and mind before I met her years ago, she’s been a mentor to me with my own writing, and held my chronic pained hand through much, including my own journey with disability. If you haven’t experienced her work before head to http://www.brownstargirl.org #leahlakshmipiepznasamarasinha #disabilityjustice #arsenalpress #textaqueen

[textaqueen]

In three hours today, 17th February in Sydney - on Gadigal country - I’m doing an artist talk in Chindia: Stories from the Artists. I’ll be on sometime tween 2.00pm - 4.00pm and will do my best to live feed my section in my story, data providing. In part I’ll be poetically narrating a slide show based on my Coconut Legacy series, my allegorical life story from conception to death, which came out of an Australia Council funded self directed residency including mentorships with Emory Douglas and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashina in Oakland, California - Ohlone Land - in 2014. Venue: 107, 107 Redfern St, Redfern (wheelchair accessible, accessible bathrooms), it costs $15 and is nearly sold out, pre bookings essential, no sales on door. Msg me if you're of the diasporas or First Nations and price is out of reach, I have 2 comps left. The talks are related to an exhibition, Chindia which features work by six visual artists exploring cultural and national identity, politics, displacement and diaspora histories of those with Chinese and Indian heritage. The exhibition is on from 15 – 26 February 2018 at a different venue @gaffagallery, Level 1, 281 Clarence St Sydney. Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 10am -6pm / Saturday: 11am – 5pm / Sunday: Closed. Free entry. (not wheelchair accessible, one flight of stairs). Even though the title Chindia sounds like a fusion food restaurant to me, should be interesting... Image: Family Tree (2012), fibre-tip marker, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint pen on cotton paper, 96.5 × 127 cm (38 × 50 in). Collection of the University of Queensland. #textaqueen #selfportrait #babyelephant #elephanttrunk #chicobabies #coconutpalm #milk #goa #southasiandiaspora #nonwhitefeminism (at Redfern)

[textaqueen]

Eve of Incarnation is a cross-genre photographic series created while I was artist-in-residence on Boonwurrung country, what is colonially named Point Nepean National Park in Victoria. The series references the artifice of high fashion photography to resist ethnographic projections onto the brown-skinned body in nature. A science-fiction narrative of emigrant experience is presented as an antithesis to the nature nude’s common depictions of passive, white femininity belying the violence of colonial history that brings settler bodies to the landscape... Preparing to whirl up a new collaborative incarnation birthed from this series but til then I’ll be showing the above work from the series, Summoner (2016) in the International Women’s Day exhibition and party featuring live music & deejays @schoolhouse_studios 81 Rupert St, Collingwood, Narrm, this Thursday 8 March from 6 - Midnight, it’s $12 + booking fee. The art exhibition (artists donating 50% of sales to Flat Out Inc) features Salote Tawale @solglow, Atong Atem @atongatem, Talia Smith, Steph Hughes, Rafaela Pandolfini, Danae Valenza and myself. Exhibition runs til 22 March. Wheelchair accessible, accessible bathroom. Flat Out is a state-wide advocacy and homelessness support service for women 18+, who have had contact with the criminal justice and/or prison system in Victoria. #iwd #flatout #fundraiser #textaqueen #naturenude #neverneutral #hightidefashion #naturecouture #kelpcouture #sciencefiction #seaswitch #sealeatherdaddy #madmax #boonwurrungcountry (at Schoolhouse Studios)

[textaqueen]

Eve of the Apocalypses, 2017, pigmented Indian ink marker, watercolour, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint on cotton paper, 127 × 97cm. Image for the month of December in my 2018 Calendar, though flaming apocalypse feelings have been recurrent in 2017 / are timeless. 'Eve is biblically blamed for being tempted by the serpent into eating from the tree of knowledge, thus inciting the Christian God to banish humanity from the Garden of Eden. Her story is re-told here as resistive allegory to the non-mythical apocalypses of colonialism in India. She erotically embraces the deadly cobra as she sits upon the ignited skulls of colonists from England, France, Denmark and Portugal. She tempts us with a fruit mythically significant across Asia, known in English as the pomegranate, which now grows like her diaspora does, dispersed by colonialism across other lands.' #eveoftheapocalypses #kingcobra #deadcolonists #flamingskulls #pomegranate #gardenofeden #colonialism #nonwhitefeminism #decoloniseyourdesire #textaqueen #2018calendar (at India)