avaf text on cyclops trannies' series

Cyclops Trannies is a series of 103 paint-marker drawings on paper from 2011. The tranny/transgender imagery has been one of the most recurrent symbols in avaf’s work for many years now. The main source of inspiration for Cyclops Trannies is culled from the recurrent representation of the woman body in Playboy-like magazines or hip-hop “booty” magazines (like “Sweets”, “Straight Stuntin”, etc). These recent drawings were also developed from avaf’s unique method of signing their monograph, which was published by Rizzoli in 2010. In addition to scrawling their signature, the artists invented individualized trannies for each book buyer. In Cyclops Trannies the artists enhance this process, using tear sheets from the monograph as backdrop for their exuberantly detailed characters. The wallpaper, too, reflects their technique in its zooming in on paint-marker blot details that precede the making of these drawings.

The tranny is for us a symbol of the contemporary world’s ultimate goddesses: demolition goddesses attempting to reconstruct their bodies in order to reach an often failed ideal. Goddesses of hyper-femininity, goddesses of imperfection, goddesses of faith in change, goddesses of demolition and destruction and reconstruction, a burst of sexual, body and identity freedom – the ultimate symbol of transformation and questioning of the status quo for avaf. Our Cyclops Trannies series feature representations of otherworldly creatures with over emphasized features; super heroine/comics-like characters with larger than life breasts and penises, monumental lips and glittering eyes mixed with rococo getups and exploding figures that are yet full of humor and tenderness. The artists wanted to explore the usual discomfort with the trans image and attach absurdity and amusement to such a taboo imagery.