There are mythical beasts stalking every land: yetis, big foots, chupacabras and mothmen. They’re legends as old as time.
But there are new ones haunting the arches of Bethnal Green; a whole gang of winged, cloven hoofed, big clawed, bare breasted, sensual creatures. They’re the mythical creations of American artist Juliana Huxtable, captured in swirling, dizzying neon paintings at Project Native Informant.
A blue-bodied, bat-winged woman with golden hair and pink pubes emerges from the shadows in one work, a pink fairy with hooves writhes in twilight in another. They’re over-the-top, hyper-coloured, cartoon-y, psychedelic celebrations of twisted gender and wild, free sexuality. They’re also garish, ugly and silly, but they’re a lot of fun too, like 3am hallucinations as you emerge, still buzzing, from the club, like visions of Saskwatch for the Vogue Fabrics generation.
The thing about yetis and chupacabras and mothmen is that those legends are based on fear. And so are Huxtable’s new mythical creatures, it’s just that instead of being fueled by fear of having your livestock mauled, they toy with prudish societal fears of liberated sexuality and fluid gender. The new myths are here, and a lot of people are going to find them just as scary as any mothman, but they are undeniably more fabulous.
