Chasing Papi

Bibliographic Data

ID13087136
AuthorsRobb Hernández (0000-0002-5650-9063, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume8
Issue1
Pages4-23
Publication date2021-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTSQ Transgender Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2328-9252 • E-ISSN: 2328-9260
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/23289252-8749554
OpenAlexW3139220805
LanguageEN
References cited16

In the wake of COVID-19, virtual platforms of contact have reimagined trans-of-color knowledge and intimacy despite social distance. The “digital,” whether cybernetic or handcrafted, has long pervaded trans and queer-of-color artistic innovation and even informed their critical responses to the AIDS crisis. None have a better grasp of the virtuosity of virtual interfaces than mixed-media artist Olivero Rodriguez. Drawing on his literary and image-based art piece entitled The Papi Project (2010–18), this essay articulates how he works in tandem with speculation and archiving. The result is a life support system reviving dormant erotic networks and complex familial relations central to his reclusive late father, Peter. By chasing Papi, Rodriguez empowers an archival art strategy to visually reconcile a trans-of-color childhood and patrilineal relations with a virus. Furthermore, by contesting the way AIDS narratives eclipse children's perspectives on disease, Rodriguez's intervention has consequence for trans-of-color historical critique, breathing new life into an “epidemic child, not birthed but raised by AIDS.”

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

Tools

Open DOI