Artist Statement

Music-Shaped Self

Music has been both a shelter and a catalyst for my self-expression and the way in which I drive myself every day. It has been my muse, my major inspiration and a safe space where I have been able to create a symbiotic link between my creative work and the outside world. Music has helped to shape my logical thinking, my queer identity and my rebellious —and sensitive— soul.

The series of four self-portraits called Music-Shaped Self is a celebration to the process of building myself through sound. Its creative process was derived from a synesthesic and introspective practice where I explored the relationship between different sounds and the visual elements that make up each of these artworks. In this process, I embarked myself on a time journey with intervals of four years —2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022—, to create a visual essay that deepens on the way my favourite records from each of those years were crucial for the development of my own identity.

Elements like the colour selection, the diversity of shapes and the peculiarity of the strokes and textures, stem from exposing myself to different sounds that ended up influencing directly the way in which each artwork was conceived. The repetition of the human figure also plays an important role, as it illustrates that my identity and my individual expression are nothing else but a blank canvas that keeps evolving and changing over the years. With it, I question the very idea of a cohesive self, while also acknowledging my indelible essence as a human being.

In contrast, I’ve also included artworks from an editorial illustration project I developed alongside the four self-portraits. This other group of six illustrations are taken from the first issue of SOPHIE, a self-published, independent magazine. Named after Sophie Xeon, a trans DJ and producer who pioneered contemporary experimental electronic music, SOPHIE was created as an act of resistance, as an advocate of diversity and as a strong cry of pride. Its mission is to serve as a spotlight for queer musicians of the modern era and to amplify the voices of communities that need and deserve to be heard.

To have a more immersive experience, visit bit.do/music-shaped-self to access a mixtape that I created as part of this collection, in which you can listen to the diverse sounds that inspired each of these illustrations.