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2022
The fairies: chthonic beings trapped between Earth and the underworld.
Their supernatural beauty blooms in the dark, humid crevices of reality; visible only to those that know where to look.
Delicate and moist; they grow from a hard and unfertile ground; like a strange flower that tenaciously springs from a crack in the concrete and clings to life.
Their supernatural beauty blooms in the dark, humid crevices of reality; visible only to those that know where to look.
Delicate and moist; they grow from a hard and unfertile ground; like a strange flower that tenaciously springs from a crack in the concrete and clings to life.
Their queer morphology manifests itself as a mask, a chosen face, composed of virtual fragments of flora and fungi that recombine to form a digital second skin over the human one.
It is morphological freedom, the liberty to declare true self identity and presentation, told in digi-botanical metaphor.
It is morphological freedom, the liberty to declare true self identity and presentation, told in digi-botanical metaphor.
The mycelial web that envelops the fairies creates an ancestral, hidden language used by them to communicate in secrecy and self protection, and thus engage in their clandestine, magical and erotic ritual without mortal interference.
From this occult network, the fairies sprout like fruiting bodies: the visible surface manifestation of a vast underground communication system.
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Fruiting Body is a mystical, biological meditation on queer identity and language.
Fruiting Body is a mystical, biological meditation on queer identity and language.
Based on folkloric ideas of fairie speech and the biology of mushrooms, the experimental suite utilizes subterranean mycelial networks as an allegorical stand-in for queer argots: protective, coded languages historically used for secret communication by these oppressed communities.
The film depicts a continuously morphing series of fungal faeries in states of ecstasy and transformation. Like fungi networks connected by mycelium, the faeries extend tendrils towards each other as they bloom in the darkness.
The film depicts a continuously morphing series of fungal faeries in states of ecstasy and transformation. Like fungi networks connected by mycelium, the faeries extend tendrils towards each other as they bloom in the darkness.
They emerge from primordial, digital aether and then dissolve into one another; suggesting a primal, magical interconnectivity.
The works were created using a combination of photographic portraiture and an AI image generation algorithm trained on datasets of fungi and flora photography. The results of these digital explorations, at once alien and familiar, recombine botanical elements into radical, magical configurations that cloak queer bodies like a second, digital-botanical skin.
The works were created using a combination of photographic portraiture and an AI image generation algorithm trained on datasets of fungi and flora photography. The results of these digital explorations, at once alien and familiar, recombine botanical elements into radical, magical configurations that cloak queer bodies like a second, digital-botanical skin.
Created in residence, at JO-HS in Mexico City
Featured in ‘Within, Below’ on view at Chinatown Soup 9.18.23 - 10.01.23
and distant.gallery 10.05.23 - ∞
Featured in ‘JO-HS: In Residence’ on view at JO-HS Gallery 9.3.22 - 10.31.22
Read the artist’s residency interview
Featured in RSVP Magazine, CDMX
Featured in Artsy
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original concept, direction, photography and compositing - Pedro Lavín
lighting and phtography assistance - Ilán Sanchez
hair and makeup - Sean Derbees
movement direction - Mauricio Rico
talent - Mauricio Rico & Andres Flores
printing and framing - FOCO Lab
gallery photography (JO-HS) - Renata Souza
gallery photography (Chinatown Soup) - Alan Tansey
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2024
PEDRO LAVÍN
BROOKLYN / CIUDAD DE MÉXICO