NADA Miami 2021

Using film, performance, and photography, Pau S. Pescador’s practice is interested in shifting between revealing and concealing intimate personal narratives. In their most recent series titled “Emancipation of P.P,” the artist looks to the medium of photography as a way to explore and document the process of shifting their own physical appearance as a trans non-binary individual. “Emancipation of P.P.”, references the 2005 Mariah Carey comeback album “The Emancipation of Mimi”. Emancipation as both a form of self freedom as well as the manner that pop music and other cultural signifiers construct identity. The works incorporate studio materials such as: Halloween masks and costumes, wrapping paper, discarded fabric, and dollar store tchotchkes, creating fabricated still-life images. These various objects are built, photographed, painted, and collaged over and over to produce a set of cartoon-like figures juxtaposed with the image of the artist holding their cell-phone camera in frame. The images show the artist over the period of one and a half years as their form begins to shift both in their clothing embracing more feminine attire alongside bodily changes as hormone replacement therapy alters their weight, hair and muscle mass. Though these images may at first appear personal and intimate, as this is the first time the artist has put their own physical appearance within their photographic artwork, their usage is not limited merely as such. These images display how the body can become almost like paper doll cutouts or clippings from fashion magazines as their own body becomes complex compositionally to the background resulting in a series of highly dense images that oscillate between figure, pattern, and abstraction.