Always exciting to check out the first tip of a brand new Playgrounds Eye Candy editor! And Jesse van den Berg really doesn’t hold anything back introducing us to an artist too diverse to be captured by one word or be defined by one medium. meet the extraordinary Mykki Blanco!
Jesse: “Mykki Blanco is an artist who I admire because of the way their queer identity and their artistic work are merged. Mykki works with multiple disciplines and uses them to tell stories from their perspective as a black queer person. I love how Mykki lives their art. Mykki’s fashion, music, performances and everything they do feels like it is all part of their identity as a queer person but also as an artist.
In the documentary ‘out of this world’ you get a beautiful image of Mykki Blanco, while also grasping their vulnerable side. Mykki meets different black queer artists in South Africa where they all share different stories. They also play a very active role in the art pieces of the people encountered.
I envy Mykki’s view on the fluidity of gender (expression). I feel like how Mykki talks about gender, sexuality, being HIV positive and other similar topics is very beautiful. It shows me, as a queer artist, that this is what I would like to see in the future. Totally normalizing queer experiences and, in Mykki’s case, especially black queer narratives with a vulnerable approach.”
“What strikes me the most is how Mykki is able to translate their own utopian norm in their artistic practice. I feel like I get invited in Mykki’s world where their rules exist, unapologetically. I feel like that’s something I am also trying to integrate in my own artistic practice. Creating an queer utopia from my own perspective in collaboration with the people I work with.
What I would love to explore, related to Mykki’s approach is to integrate disciplines like audio, music and performance and see how I could create my own world through all sorts of media.”
Mykki Blanco is an American rapper performance artist, poet and activist.