True Trans Soul Rebel Interview
MICA MFAST Program 2021 An interview with {{{{link id=’2429280′ text=’Azul Nogueron’}}}} Hi, my name is Delzy and I’m an intern at VisArts and a student at Montgomery College, it’s great to meet you! What is your exhibition about? So I named this True Trans Soul Rebel based off the song from Against Me! because Laura Jane Grace is also a transgender, musician, and my work is based on exploration, with gender practice and liberation through spirituality and me being a Mexican person I was putting some more Mexican iconography into my work. So, I do that by like the use of color the orientation of myself in space, and also the pattern work that’s being imported into the fabrics, so I use something that is part of my everyday which is my bed sheets to represent that this is something that is integral to my living and sometimes something that is like my everyday experience. So that’s why they’re on large bed sheets rather than on canvas because I think there’s a whole different conversation happening that a painting on canvas or something that is more closely personal to yourself. Could you explain why you chose to use christian iconography in your pieces? I grew up very Catholic, and there’s a lot of saints and iconography in the type of artwork that you see in the Bible or like in the stained glass. Everyone is wearing a halo and it’s very male oriented, and I thought that that this was a chance for me to see some representation on what it looks like for my body to be like the whole like the holiest amongst the people that I was surrounded by, or just generally see a non binary trans body. I just felt like it was finally my turn to see myself as someone that is worthy of “God’s love”, because I look up to like the virgen de guadalupe just knowing that she means unconditional love for her children. So I thought if I can look at myself as this holier than thou person then I should just make paintings about it because there’s not enough representation in the arts. When it comes to this kind of line of work. So that’s why I surround myself as royalty or having a halo surrounding me and doing some like masculine positions, just to talk a little bit more about gender practice. What do the hearts represent in your work? The immaculate heart is supposed to represent the unconditional love from God to his children, so I was just like, that’s really funny, because I consider that heart as love to the self. Like an abundance of love for my non-binary body which took obviously a really long time to get there. So, I do these paintings almost in a way like they’re just so cocky, that I present myself but it almost feels like I never had a chance to be that way. So I’m like presenting myself with these American the hearts of just like allowing myself to be in the space of loving myself and being maybe a little egotistical, but you know like, well deserved after a long period of just like questioning who I was very unsure and not trying to bound myself to something that is very unbound and honoring that. Coming from a Catholic background, would you say that you’re healing through your exhibition? Yeah, I consider it to be healing work because I find liberation through spirituality and I’m kind of redefining what that means to me. I don’t necessarily consider myself catholic anymore, but someone who understands doing good onto others and good will be done onto you, and just like being kind to your fellow people. So, I find spirituality through that way I find, You know I dive myself into astrology because, it’s not that it’s trendy, it’s just that it just makes a lot more sense to me of understanding like different folks. But yeah, I find myself now that I’m older and can understand these concepts a little bit like in a reframed way that I’m able to like, really enjoy spirituality for what it is rather than what someone’s idea of what they want it to be for me because I now have the autonomy to make these decisions for myself and no one’s taking that from me. And, growing up in a very Catholic household especially if you’re assigned female at birth or just assumed female that like you have a different role in your life, and I wasn’t following these roles. Clearly because I identify as many different things that are not aligned with some of the Catholic religion. So, now that I have the power just like make decisions for myself, I find that it’s a lot more liberating. And to go down this row. There are many altars in your work, and they are often meant to signify sacrifice, prayer, and sometimes even death depending on what type of altar. Is that intentional? Yeah, so, I decided to make more of an altar styled work. I think this idea that we have for altars very much like the idea that it’s a long table has many candles and then just like crying over like who we’re honoring, but I think in this aspect I have it’s less grieving and more of an honoring of a question that doesn’t need an answer, or honoring the unbound because I think that I’m so I was so used to growing up trying to define myself as many different things and sticking to that strict regimen, but now I can be whatever I want. And I can be many things, I can be everything, I can be nothing, I can be sustenance of one thing or absolutely nothing at all. Just honoring that the question of what is non binary doesn’t need an answer. So that’s why I stuck to altar work or creating a