Metalkiss (2024) Catalogue Item*

Through an amalgamation of soft fabric, clay and airbrush painting Isabel Trufas explores attraction and repulsion, mediating the space between sickly sweet and grotesque. This dichotomy is informed by an obsession with subcultural fashion, pop culture and body modification.

Amorphous, lumpy and spiky forms infect her work and allude to the body in an uncanny way, simultaneously repelling and inviting viewers to touch. Bubblegum hues plague the mutated, contorted and cartoonish forms, evoking tension, unease and transformative power. Her delicate, gothic graffiti questions the uncomfortable way that gendered self-expression can be beautiful and affirming while also painful and objectifying.

Isabel Trufas’ project ‘bubblegum void’ explores the thorny nature of performing gender identity through self-expression. The three paintings render overwhelming and jarring decorative imagery, their excessive nature becoming almost uncomfortable. Each painting explores femininity within alternative subcultures, particularly, Lolita fashion, body piercing and doll collecting. Isabel’s work, which is informed by her own interest in subcultures and body decoration, aims to depict intense gendered self-expression to the point of performance. Her work sits visually between the sugary sweet and unsettling, interrogating whether these modes of self-expression and body decoration truly reject patriarchal structures or perpetuate the objectification of women and feminine-presenting people.