Mutation

“Mutation” consists of 8 animals with various forms of mutations which ostracize them from others within their species. Using environmental storytelling, I illustrate their entrapment into the traveling circus and their eventual uprising resulting in violence and carnage, which sets them free to live their lives the way they want. The mutations serve as a metaphor for the otherness people may feel through experiences of being queer. Still, they can also fit the narrative of experiences with disability, race, or ethnicity. Many people find that others try to force them to be a certain way to be accepted by the world, whether it be to dress, act, speak, or look a certain way, which ultimately eliminates much of the individual’s identity. Transporting the viewer into my work’s narrative is vital to the impact I’d like my work to have on people, and I hope they resonate with the messages and characters that I create. By embracing chaos and unpalatability, they prove that one does not need to fit into a commercialized box of what society deems acceptable to live and succeed in this world. I encourage the viewer to identify with and join my animals in their fight for personal autonomy.