Trans Neolithic Future

Jasper Griepink

(Netherlands)
2019 – Series of pencil and marker drawings

What happened to gender somewhere between the paleolithic and the now? What was the relationship with gender in prehistoric times? How about the future, what remnants of our current time will be there to unearth? To process these questions, Jasper Griepink presents suggestive archaeological findings in the form of drawings. Together they propose the remnants of a Utopian Neolithic time where people are predominantly non-binary and trans. The artist wonders; is this a vision of the future or a rewriting of the past?

Over the voluptuous and monumental stone configurations, we see lichens, a multi-species composed of a fungus living in a symbiotic relationship with an alga or cyanobacterium – or sometimes both. There are about 17,000 species of lichen worldwide and for the artist these represent the potential of cross-species collaboration and the various gender-mixes and forms of life that exist. Additionally, they represent the persistence of nature which will always cover up and layer over whatever humanity has done and will be doing.

Jasper Griepink

― Artist

My art activates the intersections between nature spirituality, sexuality, community, ecology, gender, language and the politics in and around these zones. My practice can be seen as being an ‘expanded’ practice, wherein I work both with traditional art subjects and form, as well as design methodologies and holistic systems thinking that are not innately art-based. My practice spans research and writing, creating participatory performances and installations, happenings, spoken word, video and drawing. In sum, I do my work to examine and propose a healthy and abundant eco-centric co-habitation of the planetary spaceship – our earth.

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