Artor Jesus Inkerö

Artor Jesus Inkerö works with socially coded topics through drawing, painting, film, music, photography, performance, sculpture, sound, text, and video. Many of Artor’s works deal with the experience of being nonbinary, and their art tries to generate information around that personal narrative. They tend to go deep into punishing self-transformations, such as behavioural therapy, vocal coaching, bodybuilding, dieting, and such. Now, Artor presents their studio with art that looks into domestic life, home, and family.

Experiencing the world and responding to it through self-reflection and recognition, Artor Jesus Inkerö points at the Western notions of masculinity that shape the overall culture as well as their persona in an attempt to interpret and find refinement in conflicting ideals for the body. Inkerö examines how language, gestures and, for example, a tone of voice can deny or allow access to specific groups. By inserting themselves into unfamiliar situations with masculine connotations, they get to interrogate their personal history and former appearance as their body has changed from non-passing to passing. In asking you to look closer at structures of power, Inkerö creates space for a fantasy of norm defiance.

Sports teams, athletes, and armies become a focal point that hosts Inkerö’s cultural remarks. Undergoing a process of bodily transformation they follow a regular gym and diet routine, which connects their practice to self-growth as well as self-harm. As in bodybuilding, while the body evolves the muscles must be broken down to allow them to grow larger.

Inkerö works in moving image, photography, sculpture, performance, text and installation. In their video works, Inkerö has placed their now dissonant figure in spaces such as hotel rooms, pools, and an airplane. The character is often quietly observing the surroundings creating a dialogue between the space and the subject that evoke empathy with an adverse effect of disconnect and detachment.