VIKOI

Artist Statement

Vikoi was born in Somerset in the South West of England and makes work about how it feels to exist in a world not built for you.

Her creative practice is rooted in lived experience of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and always feeling that she is misaligned with the systems and structures that surround her.

Through toons, robots, and other such fantastical creatures, all a chiasma of biological and mechanical state (if there is a difference), she expresses herself through the medium of bold, colourful art in acrylics. She also draws inspiration from the human body - how vulnerable each of us are; is there potential for bodily enhancement through technology? And would technological enhancement, if readily available, be for our betterment?

She finds herself drawn to transhumanism;. What if our individual human limitations might be transcended? What if our collective body could be improved? If the parts of us that cause suffering might be redesigned, how might that reshape our future wellbeing? For someone who experiences their own brain as something that doesn't run on the standard operating system, the appeal of that idea is not abstract. This is not to say that she is all for the idea of transhumanism, but finds it an emotive and fascinating concept.

The brightness, the accessible forms and the playful veil which shrouds Vikoi’s work mirrors a covert truth about the experience of neurodivergence and mental ill-health. We learn, early, to present cheerfully and develop a fluency in appearing fine.

In her creative practice and output, her thoughts often boomerang to one (quasi-rebellious) question: What if we could change not ourselves, but the systems in which we are forced to inhabit? Vikoi does not have an answer (although not sure she trusts the answers that exist) but thinks the question is worth exploring and that is where she find herself with a paintbrush.

Please explore Vikoi’s art here