MCXT (Xara Thustra + Monica Canilao)
Our Bodies, Queer Bodies



MCXT’s mural-size artwork, Our Bodies, Queer Bodies, uses abstraction, figuration, and text to imagine an ecstatic, mythic experience of queer community. The title of the work, which frames the image at the top and bottom of the composition, spells out a bold, slogan-like message which is nonetheless ambiguous in its use of the poetic slippage of the words “our” and “are.” The colorful palette and incorporation of pattern and typography are idiomatic of Mission School style, which is strongly influenced by graffiti, street signs, and the energy of the inner city. The composition divides into four sections which, from left to right, include a mesmerising yin-yang of indeterminate bodily forms, a stack of figures (perhaps an homage to victims of anti-queer violence), an abstract design rich in pattern and symmetry, and a vortex-like form that draws both bodies and patterns into its inexorable swirl.