VIKOI

Artist Statement

I make work about how it feels to exist in a world not built for you.

My creative practice is rooted in lived experience of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and always feeling that I’m misaligned with the systems and structures that surround me.

Through toons, robots, and other such fantastical creatures, all a chiasma of biological and mechanical state (if there is a difference), I express myself through the medium of bold, colourful art in mixed media. I also draw 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?

I find myself 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 I am all for the idea of transhumanism, but I find it an emotive and fascinating concept.

The brightness, the accessible forms and the playful veil which shrouds my 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. I hope you can appreciate this concept when considering my work

In my creative practice and output, my 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? I do not have an answer (and I am not sure I trust the answers that exist) but I think the question is worth exploring and that is where I find myself with a paintbrush.

Please explore my art here