I am a disabled, takatāpui (LGBTQ+) artist. Identity and how it is represented in public is my central concern as an artist and is at the forefront of my work themes, as I like being confronting about placing my queerness in public spaces. This exhibition is a chance for me to express publicly who I am and the community I am part of in Ōtautahi, while also reaching out to specific marginalised communities here. My ambition comes from a need to learn about and research my surroundings and family history and my desire for connection, as well as establishing relationships in the art world as my authentic self. My research focus has been looking at takatāpui history and experiences that other people in our community have with this label, reading the ways people have grown up and what they want in the world – and relating those things back to my experiences, using them to help decolonise my current ways of living, and rejecting the idea that queerness is an exclusively western identity. My indigenous identity has always been a struggle for me to acknowledge and accept.

My artwork is ink-based mixed media with a very hyper-stylised look, using elements of printmaking, pigment liner sketches and then processing them using digital formats.