The end of the world is upon us. Plumes of fog erupt from the earth. Solar flares burst into the atmos. The oceans boil and swell, flooding shores around the planet. And finally, monsters appear, walking among us, spreading fear, portending our doom. But among this devastation, a messiah appears before us. To make meaning. To give us hope. To show us the beauty in monstrousness that we must all accept. What many have feared shall be viewed through a new, shining, light. The societal norms that we so stubbornly hold in such high regard shall be ripped from us and hurled into hellfire. The demarcations of gender, shattered within an instant. Our bodies will hold no clear signifiers; only their individuality.

Monsters of the Apocalypse acts as a queer reimagining of the end of the world, as well as a proposal for what a new one might look like. Using the language and presentation of radical preachers, Patel delves into the root of monstrosity. In her book, ‘The Monstrous Feminine’, Barbara Creed writes “the abject is that which does not respect borders, positions and rules and disturbs identity, systems and order.” Creed explores the depictions of the female monster within horror and uses these archetypes to create a link to our societal fears of symbolic hierarchies being destroyed. It is worth considering the etymological origin of the word ‘monster’, deriving from the Latin “monstrum”, which means to foretell, remind, or instruct.

For example, the Monster of Ravenna, depicted in Patel's The Monster of the Liberties, was first sighted in 1512 in a period of extreme political unrest. Its distorted signifiers revealed more specific fears in the public consciousness; the horn jutting out of its head, a symbol of pride; an eye on the knee, looking away from heaven and towards earthly desires; a penis and a vagina, symbolizing sexual deviancy and sodomy; the list goes on.

However, in essence, the monster has always been a transgressor of cultural norms. It is an innovator, providing an alternative to linear, conformist mindsets. A monster acts as a source of difference and uniqueness, that should be aspired to. The monsters in this work tell a story of our current societal issues, but rather than fear them, we must accept them to find our only way out. Patel's The Monstrous Transfeminine, is a blurring of gender and bodily distinctions. The typically hard lines of feminine vs masculine, animal vs human, and animate vs inanimate, are made fuzzy. Using her own experience living as a transfemme of color within a Eurocentric heteronormative society, Patel incorporates radical relations between the norm and the other. She investigates how the monstrous body (the “other”) can be used to create fear and revulsion, but also as a site of exploration and societal growth. In us, we all have a monster waiting to get out, but to find them, we must die, and we must be reborn.

Events

Biographies:

Venus Patel is an experimental film and performance artist based in Dublin. She was born in Los Angeles with a BA in Fine Art from TU Dublin. In 2022, her short film, Eggshells won the Taylor Art Award from the RDS Visual Art Awards, was shown as part of the Gaze Film Festival, and exhibited for Periodical Review 12: Practical Magic with Pallas Projects. She has recently performed and collaborated in the making of “Privilege: The Musical”, and “Hive City Legacy: Dublin” as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival 2022, as well as being put forward for the Future Generation Art Prize 2022 by its Irish partner platform Pallas Projects Studios.

Patel’s work concerns her experience as a trans femme of colour, trying to navigate the world. Through the use of costuming and loose gender expression, she encapsulates the campy blend of her queer identity. Venus questions the heteronormative society we live in, why the need to conform is so heavily enforced, and how that affects the perceptions of ourself, others, and the world around us. Although her work deals with serious subject matter, she utilises a unique mix of humour, absurdity, and abjection to create multi-faceted performances and experiences.

@venusart666 | venuspatel.com

Artist-Initiated Projects at Pallas Projects/Studios is an open-submission, annual gallery programme of 8 x 3-week exhibitions taking place from March-November 2023. This unique programme of funded, artist-initiated projects selected via open call is highly accessible to artists, with a focus on early career, emerging artists and recent graduates. Projects are supplemented with artists' talks, texts, workshops or performances, and gallery visits by colleges and local schools.