Mixed media on watercolour paper, 841mm x 594mm (2024)

GROWTH explores the deep interconnectedness of queerness, the cosmos and constant growth. Here, the MAGIC JHUMKAS crash into the city, taking root and transforming the world around them. They awaken the magic within, calling upon a timeless, cyclical bond with the characters trans ancestors. From the river of revolution which flows from the characters neck, new infrastructures and systems begin to bloom. The future is a dance that carries the past, a past where trans people have always existed - across time and space.

Jhumkas are a style of earrings predominately worn by South Asian people. The jingling sound they make is said to ward off evil, and they symbolise eternal life and spirituality, evoking movement and fluidity. 'MAGIC JHUMKAS' tells the story of a Sikh Gender Expansive Transfem person who uses a pair of magical Jhumkas to liberate the city from systems of oppression.

The built environment has long violently excluded Trans and Queer People of Colour, particularly at the intersection of trans-femininity and gender nonconformity. The Jhumkas in this piece symbolize infrastructures of gender-affirming power - connected to our bodies, hair, power and divinity - fluid and powerful, they are magical weapons that affirm life. They reference how objects and jewellery serve as life-affirming tools for many trans+ people.

Artist Bio: Aaran (they/them) is an artist and designer working at the intersection of queerness, urban equity, race, identity and community. Their work explores how the city can be created, (re)appropriated, (re)claimed through the lens of QTPOC (Queer, Trans, People of Colour) experiences, collectively and spiritually. They explore histories, narratives, and stories, expressing them within spaces and urban environments through various mediums of visual art.

Their work aims to give new meanings to methodologies within architecture and space as a commentary on city making, to subvert the white/heterosexist narratives of space to envision a queer-ed and decolonial reading of the future.

Aaran’s approach is collaborative and process-led, creating spaces for expression and community connections.