FACET, VSSL Studio’s programme dedicated to the exploration and celebration of contemporary queer art and culture presents an eponymous group exhibition this autumn featuring all five FACET artists: Benjamin Sebastian, Alicia Radage, June Lam, Rocío Boliver & Marcin Gawin.
Running from October 5-29 with a launch event on Friday October 6, this is the third of FACET’s five exhibitions. Via collage, sculpture, video, photography, and installation, the exhibition provides an opportunity to experience the multifaceted practices of FACET artists ahead of two further solo exhibitions at VSSL Studio this November and in January 2024, from Rocio Boliver and Marcin Gawin respectively.
JUNE LAM is a multidisciplinary artist, activist and community organiser, working across nightlife and within the trans community.
FACET takes a fresh look at June’s evocative collages following his solo exhibition at VSSL Studio in August. June’s collage practice began during lockdown, initially reflecting isolation, anxiety and fear. Recent pieces explore his ancestry, spiritual practice and journey as a Vietnamese Chinese person within the context of diaspora and displacement.
Lam’s work centres queer desirability politics, fag effeminacy and embodied experiences of intergenerational trauma. In his collage work he takes imagery from amongst other sources, vintage magazines rooted in a dehumanising and anthropological Western gaze upon Southeast Asian people and people of colour. Now liberated from objectification, Lam honours the spirits and individuals depicted, restoring their agency and acknowledging their complexity. He sees this as a spiritual reclamation, offering those depicted space for love, attention and care. @assignedfagatbirth
ALICIA RADAGE creates work in performance, video, sculpture and sound, Radage’s current research looks at the intersection between the neurodiverse experience and animist practice, looking at ways of communicating and being outside of the neurotypical. Alicia has taught fine art and theatre at both MA and BA level. @alicia_radage_artist
BENJAMIN SEBASTIAN is a trans-disciplinary artist-curator based in London. Their practice might be imagined as a constellation of mirrors, reflecting aspects of the body, time and spaces they inhabit, or as world-making experiments, manifested through processes of bricolage, assemblage and ritual.
Sebastian received their BA Fine Art (HONS) from the University of Lincoln and is currently enrolled on the MA Curating Art and Public Programmes through Whitechapel Gallery & LSBU. They are Chief Curator & Co-founding Director of ]performance s p a c e [ and Co-founding Co-director of VSSL Studio. @benjaminsebastian
ROCIO BOLIVER collaborates with photographer Karolina Bazydlo and model Bartlomiej Gudejko in a bold response to the invisibility of the ageing female form within the realm of sexual pleasure, desire, and erotic play. The artist has reimagined the conventional ‘pin up’ calendar concept creating portrayals of womanly autonomy. Boliver confronts the absurdity of society’s narrow beauty standards and the consequent marginalisation of older women.
The works offer an empowering and unapologetic message, encouraging viewers to recognise and celebrate female sexuality, ownership, pleasure and the power that this holds. Known as La Congelada de Uva, Boliver is a key figure in underground performance art in Mexico and beyond. For over thirty years, her work has confronted the ideological grid that shapes women’s lives, challenging ageism and capitalism’s impact on women in the stage of life between menopause and old age. Boliver’s performances have been presented extensively in Europe, Asia, North and South America and she has participated in festivals globally. @rocioboliver
MARCIN GAWIN is an interdisciplinary artist based in Bristol, whose work encompasses image construction, installation, and live art. His fascination with the human body and its potential for transformation is evident in his practice, which explores the body’s function in mundane practicality, as well as in speculative and occult realities. In 2019,
Currently, Marcin is pursuing an MA in Virtual and Extended Realities at the University of the West of England, where he is researching the concept of embodied cognition in virtual environments and utilising immersion as an artistic strategy. @mrcn.gwn
VSSL Studio, 50 Resolution Way, Deptford. SE8 4AL.
Launch Event: Friday, October 6th, 6-9pm
12-5pm, Thursday to Sunday
5th-29th October 2023
