Castor and Pollux, 2021
mixed media installation

Commissioned for the John Fries Award 2020, 13 March – 17 April 2021, curated by Miriam Kelly, UNSW Galleries, Sydney.

Castor and Pollux is a dual portrait of the artist alongside his aunt and godmother, Butch De Guzman. Using various objects and ephemera, he has developed a 'portrait' of their relationship in the shape of the constellation of Gemini, their shared astrological sign. The objects chosen – objects, clothing, photographs, religious icons – allude to certain frameworks of how we build and understand our personal identities. In this sense Castor and Pollux is both a portrait and a map – anatomical coordinates that trace the deeper emotional, biological, familial, spiritual, and cosmological cartography of our interiors.

Photos: Jessica Maurer