There have been many talked-about works on the present Venice Biennale, from a Golden Lion–profitable Mataaho Collective set up fashioned from tie-downs to an assortment of abstractions by under-recognized artists. However only one piece within the present has gone viral on X, changing into the topic of a lot of memes, starting from the hilarious (about RuPaul) and to the lewd (about Venom).
That work is Joshua Serafin‘s VOID (2022– ), a video within the Arsenale portion of the primary exhibition that options an individual writhing earlier than vibrant blue lights and slicking their physique in a black, oily substance. The piece, which was carried out reside through the 2023 version of the Artwork Basel Hong Kong truthful, has now made its approach throughout social media, the place it has grow to be an surprising joke.
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Sarafin, who hails from the Philippines and is now primarily based in Brussels, has described VOID as depicting a nonbinary deity coming into being. Within the piece, Serafin themselves might be seen carrying little aside from a thong. They dip themselves right into a pool stuffed with darkish liquid and smack their hair round an area stuffed with sand. Guitar music by Calvin Service performs all of the whereas.
On the Venice Biennale, footage of that efficiency, which has been carried out in venues starting from Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt to the TONO Competition in Mexico Metropolis, is being introduced in an set up that additionally featured a mirrored ingredient on the ground. The work is however one instance of what number of artists within the present have recycle horror and sci-fi tropes to rethink gender binaries.
In an interview with Pin-Up, Serafin mentioned the work is “premised on my perception that queers are as we speak’s shamans, or the ‘different’ that goes in opposition to binary constructions, refuse to be put into this or that field, query methods, and have the capability to heal society. To me, queerness isn’t just about illustration — it’s a couple of state of being undefinable.”
Serafin continued, “Consequently, Void is all the pieces and nothing on the similar time; it’s about eager to be de-represented (post-race, post-body, post-gender) however on the similar time to be seen as one thing larger that’s past all these labels — the physique as an lively energy supply.”
Most didn’t appear conscious of this context, nonetheless, when footage of Serafin’s efficiency began getting memed this week on X. The work seems to have first began gaining consideration when a person named Mr. Gingles posted the video, joking that it represented “The Shit Sorcerer of Poop world.” That tweet has since gained 24,000 likes.
As is often the case for X, it didn’t take lengthy for issues to get out of hand. One other tweet with roughly the identical quantity of likes in contrast the video to what goes on at RuPaul’s rumored “fracking rig.” Different NSFW posts claimed the video represented what occurs to the Marvel superhero Venom throughout sexual actions.
A choose few customers have famous that the video does, in actual fact, painting Serafin and have defined that the work comprises a extra incisive level that many acknowledged. (“Its soo cuntyyyyo,” a person responded to 1 such tweet.)
For many who can’t make it to Venice, Serafin has posted uncooked footage of the efficiency to their Instagram, the place the video at the moment has greater than 1.4 million likes.