Luke Phillips

“Undead Devotion” critiques the recent trend of undead romantic leads in young adult media.

“Fear of Own Queerness” synthesizes common icons of queer discovery with Baroque Memento Mori paintings to reflect the fear that is often associated with realizing one’s sexuality.

“Funeral Hookups” are a common phenomenon, exemplifying the scientifically proven link between grief and hyper-sexuality.

“Smoking Hot” depicts indulgence in death-inducing behaviour immediately following sex.

“Love in the time of Covid-19” places information regarding Covid-19 transmission and sex into a screen printed medical pamphlet.

“Halloween Hotties” criticizes the culture of sexualizing monsters in commercial Halloween costumes.

Transgender people are rarely represented in media outside of the roles of murderers, sex workers, or corpses. Synthesized with an Art Nouveau lithograph, this piece challenges that projection of inherent trans reality.

“La Petite Mort” references Simone de Beauvoir’s description of climax – “We have seen that the act of love requires of woman profound self-abandonment; she bathes in passive languor; with closed eyes, anonymous, lost, she feels as if borne by waves, swept away in a storm, shrouded in darkness: darkness of the flesh, of the womb, of the grave. Annihilated, she becomes one with the whole, her ego is abolished. But when the man moves from her, she finds herself back on Earth, on a bed, in the light; she again has a name, a face: she is one vanquished, prey, object.” (The Second Sex, 216) – in the style of Rococo design.

Little Death