https://aclarsen.studio AC Larsen Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:12:23 +0000 https://aclarsen.studio en https://aclarsen.studio/Home-1 Fri, 23 Jun 2023 09:43:29 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/Home-1 <img width="4592" height="2584" width_o="4592" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/db23ff6f9c990480c835aab21cc8d5b473ffd3b218b6dc907c03b028e461ea83/Ritual_full.jpg" data-mid="238430647" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/db23ff6f9c990480c835aab21cc8d5b473ffd3b218b6dc907c03b028e461ea83/Ritual_full.jpg" />Ritual, single channel video 8’ 05”, rosemary, brass candelabra, cut glass ash tray, pages from Genesis 2 &amp; 3: King James Bible,&nbsp;Installation view at Fondazione Antonio Ratti, CSAV Aperto: Low Realisms, 2025 ©Copyright AC Larsen 2026. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/spiritus-sanctus Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:12:23 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/spiritus-sanctus Spiritus Sanctus Solo Exhibition at Huxley-Parlour, London, 2026 <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a33de5d8d4a44a6184cc87b20963605599338f482401c5e0e3ad29a30c214908/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.266.jpg" data-mid="251229170" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a33de5d8d4a44a6184cc87b20963605599338f482401c5e0e3ad29a30c214908/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.266.jpg" /><img width="4856" height="3237" width_o="4856" height_o="3237" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7909e242cead579152b800bdf0c9c0643e14fa356e410190eca6acfb55a7d12/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.26.jpg" data-mid="251229171" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7909e242cead579152b800bdf0c9c0643e14fa356e410190eca6acfb55a7d12/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.26.jpg" /> So many flowers, 2026, Concrete, dried roses, Grandma’s table cloth <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b86255e52943903a5e8608e9ce89f886879789cba880fbc876aabb1f65d4c66/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.262.jpg" data-mid="251229172" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b86255e52943903a5e8608e9ce89f886879789cba880fbc876aabb1f65d4c66/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.262.jpg" /><img width="4307" height="7653" width_o="4307" height_o="7653" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f03f0fd2dd055234e0d3be08e1f837426d46e19f9bee57dc239e408778d4af5/Votive-1.jpg" data-mid="251229065" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1f03f0fd2dd055234e0d3be08e1f837426d46e19f9bee57dc239e408778d4af5/Votive-1.jpg" />Votive, 2026,&nbsp;Cherry wood, Bio Oil, cotton, stainless steel Cuban chains <img width="5348" height="3565" width_o="5348" height_o="3565" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/92bdfa7a1108ce62673e8eeaf74b9bb4f455439215432c65e7099765ab5e1dfc/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.261.jpg" data-mid="251229178" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/92bdfa7a1108ce62673e8eeaf74b9bb4f455439215432c65e7099765ab5e1dfc/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.261.jpg" /> <img width="3068" height="4602" width_o="3068" height_o="4602" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84892420426e5ef50089cee6a90536a9afb4e8e6726beb7561d7faca99516f90/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.265.jpg" data-mid="251229177" border="0" data-scale="75" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/84892420426e5ef50089cee6a90536a9afb4e8e6726beb7561d7faca99516f90/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.265.jpg" /> An awfully big adventure, 2026, Helium balloon, Disney’s 1953 Peter Pan VHS tape <img width="4666" height="3110" width_o="4666" height_o="3110" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d3ede3cd1c35c2758a4adc7a8deda86ffbc46f77fc8da047ab589f6aef2a4ec/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.267.jpg" data-mid="251229179" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6d3ede3cd1c35c2758a4adc7a8deda86ffbc46f77fc8da047ab589f6aef2a4ec/AC-Larsen--Spiritus-Sanctus--Conduit--Huxley-Parlour--09.06-23.06.267.jpg" />Spiritus Sanctus Conduit 3–5 Swallow Street, Project Space 09 - 23.06.26 Huxley-Parlour is delighted to present Spiritus Sanctus, an exhibition of new works by AC Larsen. Larsen’s practice seeks to dismantle the rigid division of supposed binaries, instead creating works that exist in the space between oppositional states of masculinity and tenderness, joy and grief, religious doctrine and queerness, and nostalgia and reality. The title of the exhibition, Spiritus Sanctus, refers to the Holy Spirit, one of the Holy Trinity in Christian theology which is conceptualised as an enduring presence, and for some is believed to act as an agent of transformation for the soul, and a force for love. For Larsen this notion of the Holy Spirit is deeply connected to their own experience of transness. The iconography of the Christian faith is woven through Larsen’s work. In their wall-based sculptures, the artist takes the motif of the votive and devotional shrine as a point of departure. Replacing the traditional candle with a bottle of Bio Oil, Larsen supplants the enduring symbol of light in Judeo-Christian tradition with a product commonly used for healing in post-operative care. In place of rosary beads, which would traditionally hang under these shrines, Larsen places a Cuban chain - another recurring motif in their work - to highlight the presence of queer bodies. Larsen intwines queer and religious iconography to reinterpret an object and site of devotion and prayer as a means to foreground the spirituality of queerness and the ritualised practices of the body. Referencing this impulse towards an innate or ‘higher’ version of oneself, the wicks placed in the Bio Oil remain perpetually unlit, while leaving open the possibility for light. In their work entitled So Many Flowers, the artist continues their exploration of remembrance. A concrete bust, resting on a bed of dried roses, taken from the cast of Larsen’s chest following their top surgery, adopts the visual language of statues and monuments, situating transness within a canon from which it has been historically absent. As much an exploration of the iconography of memorials, the work is also an ode to their experience of gender-affirming care, one that involves both feelings of joy and grief. For Larsen these emotions do not exist as dualities, rather in a dialectic exchange. The work references the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and its rallying cry ‘give us our roses while we are still here’, and in so doing, So Many Flowers acts as a marker for time past, a measure of the act of remembrance, while situating that moment within the present. Time operates across different registers in Larsen’s work. Referencing a line from Disney’s 1953 animation of Peter Pan - ‘to die would be an awfully big adventure’ - Larsen’s sculpture of a helium balloon attached with a VHS ribbon of the film, proposes transition as a form of death which inherently holds within it the potential for life. Within this cyclical framework, the artist considers the complexity of memory tinged by nostalgia in view of overtly toxic realities. The character of Peter Pan, the boy who never had to grow up, embodies the gendered privilege afforded to boyhood, as opposed to the figure of Wendy, whose agency is exclusively tethered to maternal care. The sculpture is left to float upwards, yet is frustrated by the gallery’s ceiling, which acts as a foil to unadulterated freedom; An Awfully Big Adventure expresses the loss of childhood innocence in its acknowledgment of gender bias, while simultaneously proffering how we might remedy the curdling of nostalgia and reality through a self-determined acceptance of new beginnings for the future. https://aclarsen.studio/ALL-FOR-ONE-ONE-FOR-NONE Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:53:24 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/ALL-FOR-ONE-ONE-FOR-NONE All For One, One For None Solo Exhibition at OOF Gallery, London, 2025 <img width="5467" height="4486" width_o="5467" height_o="4486" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77afecffecc0a3428151b79848e832a243090094a08e4b5eaa956c12ef1f94fe/0Y2A0867-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831516" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77afecffecc0a3428151b79848e832a243090094a08e4b5eaa956c12ef1f94fe/0Y2A0867-Edit.jpg" />Give Us Our Roses While We’re Still Here, &nbsp;2025, wood, roses <img width="6414" height="4356" width_o="6414" height_o="4356" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/664f93cf2b3b7ec4fb02420360edb396e1366051353d033f84c5b7b7180ef162/0Y2A0883-Edit-copy.jpg" data-mid="244318958" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/664f93cf2b3b7ec4fb02420360edb396e1366051353d033f84c5b7b7180ef162/0Y2A0883-Edit-copy.jpg" /><img width="6720" height="4480" width_o="6720" height_o="4480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c04ffda9371e22da97039b14f2b14bd69df51cc347fd05400d23c1a677fa5a4/0Y2A0912-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831577" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c04ffda9371e22da97039b14f2b14bd69df51cc347fd05400d23c1a677fa5a4/0Y2A0912-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="6002" height="4480" width_o="6002" height_o="4480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/894305c85075ff270ba88a234d3f831718db4576db79e9f7f692e97fec0662ba/0Y2A0928-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831557" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/894305c85075ff270ba88a234d3f831718db4576db79e9f7f692e97fec0662ba/0Y2A0928-Edit.jpg" /> <img width="4258" height="5916" width_o="4258" height_o="5916" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/564502197f695b72ae8948863b86a8ee8d64ff348ce3326473c5ae8a5bb66fab/008A0566-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831684" border="0" data-scale="81" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/564502197f695b72ae8948863b86a8ee8d64ff348ce3326473c5ae8a5bb66fab/008A0566-Edit.jpg" /> Stigmata, &nbsp;2025, printed leather, tiles <img width="6720" height="4481" width_o="6720" height_o="4481" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a789815e59ddcceec9320c6d7ff3b543832a093652793f7bd4321108ccd27329/0Y2A0858-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831518" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a789815e59ddcceec9320c6d7ff3b543832a093652793f7bd4321108ccd27329/0Y2A0858-Edit.jpg" /><img width="5601" height="3917" width_o="5601" height_o="3917" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c66a06c8617fdc9ba0310abe46022225f39a9c1ca21d02348d828545a3de0b63/0Y2A0854-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831527" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c66a06c8617fdc9ba0310abe46022225f39a9c1ca21d02348d828545a3de0b63/0Y2A0854-Edit.jpg" /><img width="6205" height="4330" width_o="6205" height_o="4330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/00fec0f9aca5804df67efadcfb478e976b2c38af969291deea39d484fcf9c67c/0Y2A0893-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831528" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/00fec0f9aca5804df67efadcfb478e976b2c38af969291deea39d484fcf9c67c/0Y2A0893-Edit.jpg" /><img width="4420" height="5153" width_o="4420" height_o="5153" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/69d2e004e3e6a9802d8f75bd8c050a4eb6ad7715c3b5528247987ec55971d37d/0Y2A0910-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831529" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/69d2e004e3e6a9802d8f75bd8c050a4eb6ad7715c3b5528247987ec55971d37d/0Y2A0910-Edit.jpg" /><img width="5637" height="4350" width_o="5637" height_o="4350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0cc7cb57ea8a3fd7af40758835da7a3d3fab6b2c61c894ba47c28c087b1d496/0Y2A0878-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831640" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c0cc7cb57ea8a3fd7af40758835da7a3d3fab6b2c61c894ba47c28c087b1d496/0Y2A0878-Edit.jpg" /><img width="5539" height="4057" width_o="5539" height_o="4057" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/410541ed77e61bb7dca22538e26944fd0f081a7fb2479493c5af1b688127e53b/0Y2A0879-Edit.jpg" data-mid="241831642" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/410541ed77e61bb7dca22538e26944fd0f081a7fb2479493c5af1b688127e53b/0Y2A0879-Edit.jpg" />Communion, &nbsp;2025, concrete All for One, One for NoneOOF GalleryWarmington House, 744 High Road London&nbsp;28.11 - 20.12.25 AC Larsen’s first UK solo exhibition is a collaborative act of queer resistance. Utilising the aesthetics and symbolism of Judeo-Christian memorial rituals, Larsen explores the materia realities of living as a trans+ person within the current UK political climate. In June of this year, the Football Association (FA) banned trans women from playing in FA-affliated women’s football in England – even at amateur, grassroots level. The Scottish Footbal Association (SFA) quickly followed suit, stating that ‘only biological females’ would be allowed to play in SFA leagues from the 2025/2026 season onwards. The FA has since also updated its policy for trans men, requiring them to sign a statement that they are ‘biologically female’ and ‘have a greater risk of injury when playing against adult biological males’. Women’s grassroots football is undeniably queer and has long been a safe space for trans and gender non-conforming people. Built on DIY community frameworks that don’t shy away fro their egalitarian left-wing politics, hundreds of trans-inclusive leagues and clubs have been operating for decades up and down the country, fostering belonging, community and essential social-support for vulnerable groups. These S/FA bans go against the very ethos of grassroots sport and fly in the face of the FA’s own values, whose tagline ironically advocates: ‘Football, For All’. Larsen’s show is dominated by an 8ft memorial which features the names of 140 trans+ football players from grassroots football teams across England, Scotland and Wales, compiled through an open call. ‘Give Us Our Roses While We’re Still Here’ takes its name from the rally cry of Transgender Day of Remembrance – an annual observance that honors the memory of trans people who have lost their lives to violence and hatred. The names have been rendered illegible to protect players from doxing – a common practice used by the anti-trans lobby, whereby personal information is publicly distributed with the intent of causing psychological and/or physical harm. The work serves as both a stark reminder of the safety concerns trans people navigate on a daily basis and a powerful allegorical gesture of community belonging. In ‘Stigmata’, Larsen reflects on their experience of recovering from gender-affirming surgery in the weeks following the FA’s policy update. Drawing parallels between their resulting scars and the wounds of stigmatics in Christian mysticism, Larsen explores the state’s obsession with controlling trans bodies and the continual political footballing that simultaneously frames trans people as pariahs and threats. Larsen evokes the deep sense of care that can be built through ritual practice in ‘Communion’; 11 concrete casts of LED powered tea lights, which are often lit as devotional or celebratory acts within multiple faiths, arranged in the Lionesses’ Euro ‘25 winning 4-3-3 formation. ‘All For One, One For None’ is at once an ode to the formidable force of grassroots communities, an an evocation of the perpetual proximity to fragility that is felt by trans people, too often at the hands of governing bodies. ©Copyright AC Larsen 2025. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/CSAV-Low-Realisms Fri, 19 Sep 2025 11:37:28 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/CSAV-Low-Realisms Low Realisms Group presentation at CSAV residency,&nbsp;Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, 2025 <img width="4592" height="2584" width_o="4592" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/db23ff6f9c990480c835aab21cc8d5b473ffd3b218b6dc907c03b028e461ea83/Ritual_full.jpg" data-mid="238429408" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/db23ff6f9c990480c835aab21cc8d5b473ffd3b218b6dc907c03b028e461ea83/Ritual_full.jpg" />Ritual, single channel video 8’ 05”, rosemary, brass candelabra, cut glass ash tray, pages from Genesis 2 &amp; 3: King James Bible. Installation view at Fondazione Antonio Ratti, CSAV Aperto: Low Realisms, 2025 <img width="2584" height="4592" width_o="2584" height_o="4592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ff878d508ee6be431c26387cddd56a571884dcca7346273d5bb85dbc9bb0387/Ritual_table.jpg" data-mid="238429411" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1ff878d508ee6be431c26387cddd56a571884dcca7346273d5bb85dbc9bb0387/Ritual_table.jpg" /><img width="4592" height="2584" width_o="4592" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd36d9564d51b286561fd735d269f6b1a4fb1c120ec66d08899aedc1921648ac/Ritual_table-detail.jpg" data-mid="238429423" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd36d9564d51b286561fd735d269f6b1a4fb1c120ec66d08899aedc1921648ac/Ritual_table-detail.jpg" /><img width="4490" height="2527" width_o="4490" height_o="2527" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0daff0d7894e5868a8d3eeea866b2fb0249196ca82f095bb4fdfb8a75c758ae5/Ritual_monitor.jpg" data-mid="238429422" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0daff0d7894e5868a8d3eeea866b2fb0249196ca82f095bb4fdfb8a75c758ae5/Ritual_monitor.jpg" /> Low realismsFondazione Antonio Ratti 3–5 Swallow Street, Project Space22 - 26.07.25 The 16 young international artists enrolled in Low Realisms, led by Ed Atkins through a programme of workshops, readings, viewings, discussions and performances on the less traversed, more convoluted kinds of artistic realism, will present some of their artworks during Aperto, held on July 22 at the conclusion of the course.Being at the crossroads between exhibition and studio visit, Aperto represents a moment in which creative process and artistic research are displayed in the making, joining the discursive and procedural flux of the laboratory.Artists: Ed Atkins, Quentin Bouard, John Boyle-Singfield, Ronnie Danaher, Beatrice Favaretto, Julie Goslinga, Cornelia Isaksson, AC Larsen, Daria Makarova, Tomás Maglione, Marcel Mrejen, Magdalena Mitterhofer, Youngjin Park, Gabriella Sacco, Maurizio Segato, Beatrice Vorster &amp; Yasmin Vardi ©Copyright AC Larsen 2026. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/SO-I-KNOW-I-M-LIVING-IN-THIS-HOUR Wed, 08 Oct 2025 11:17:37 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/SO-I-KNOW-I-M-LIVING-IN-THIS-HOUR so i know i’m living in this hourA collaboration: Maurizio Segato &amp; AC Larsen, 2025 <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06584b3c23feca83ae4702c437576ea4ddc62fdf7c8eee149e46f972ee15df97/Chapel-1.jpg" data-mid="239145332" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06584b3c23feca83ae4702c437576ea4ddc62fdf7c8eee149e46f972ee15df97/Chapel-1.jpg" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/89ad8ad6f92f86b75b34bd4483313071ece6c12bde06ad46edb28134c616f6db/Chapel-2.jpg" data-mid="239145334" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/89ad8ad6f92f86b75b34bd4483313071ece6c12bde06ad46edb28134c616f6db/Chapel-2.jpg" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a7bdfade28664e7935b17d7e979d234feb6521dfac6154dab50e489ac02dc639/_A733727.JPG" data-mid="239145905" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a7bdfade28664e7935b17d7e979d234feb6521dfac6154dab50e489ac02dc639/_A733727.JPG" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d927d3520ab3162d3f3b4821dee84c4d90bb9d6aec2ffd941a090da25e8c2bc0/_A733740.JPG" data-mid="239145906" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d927d3520ab3162d3f3b4821dee84c4d90bb9d6aec2ffd941a090da25e8c2bc0/_A733740.JPG" /><img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a124953e0b7edc27665f0f5969aa74aa5f5cef51b7413add9807571dbc5e30ed/_A733759.JPG" data-mid="239145907" border="0" data-scale="69" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a124953e0b7edc27665f0f5969aa74aa5f5cef51b7413add9807571dbc5e30ed/_A733759.JPG" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd8c0335ab8a5d056a4e83f7d8f8eb501967782fd239c47bee9e34b9d33ed06e/_A733766.JPG" data-mid="239145908" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd8c0335ab8a5d056a4e83f7d8f8eb501967782fd239c47bee9e34b9d33ed06e/_A733766.JPG" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c47ca8fe0148f5a887423b0df981b32d2c2207870058b406160c060f427de3f2/_A733768.JPG" data-mid="239145909" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c47ca8fe0148f5a887423b0df981b32d2c2207870058b406160c060f427de3f2/_A733768.JPG" />so i know i’m living in this hour,&nbsp;Audio (01:40:19) and textAC Larsen &amp; Maurizio Segato, installation view at Cappella Fondazione Antonio Ratti, CSAV Aperto: Low Realisms, 2025 From a shared research-based interest in embodiment, myth and memory, Maurizio Segato and AC Larsen engaged in an experimental collaboration, staged at the historic Cappella of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, July 2025. Upon death, what sound would encapsulate your life? This was the question posed to 20 artists from across Europe, Asia and Canada — each working collaboratively across a range of different media. Sound bites were collected from each artist, including a mix of personal archival material, songs and field recordings. The recordings were combined to form a mix-tape — a track list to life, which was installed and presented to the group at the Low Realisms Aperto, alongside a participatory text in the form of a gift to each visitor. The work existed as a temporal and site-specific piece that sought to ground the listener in the present, experiential moment — a celebration of life and a tribute to the power of collective presence. ©Copyright AC Larsen 2025. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/New-Contemporaries-2025 Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:25:30 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/New-Contemporaries-2025 New Contemporaries 2025 Group exhibition at ICA London <img width="7952" height="5304" width_o="7952" height_o="5304" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bea7c7547cd152d0c06243779b299c49e747d1071715c272934b5d4f373e271e/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-89.jpg" data-mid="238429557" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bea7c7547cd152d0c06243779b299c49e747d1071715c272934b5d4f373e271e/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-89.jpg" /><img width="5464" height="8192" width_o="5464" height_o="8192" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f8271e60d7ebba1fe556b529dcdf9310f14fc808f26810e2390e37e5e32a6ad/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-91.jpg" data-mid="238429558" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f8271e60d7ebba1fe556b529dcdf9310f14fc808f26810e2390e37e5e32a6ad/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-91.jpg" /><img width="5464" height="8192" width_o="5464" height_o="8192" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c089a99559be19389735657418fd93e151420506a2c64da61348c43646198db/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-93.jpg" data-mid="238429560" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c089a99559be19389735657418fd93e151420506a2c64da61348c43646198db/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-93.jpg" /><img width="3934" height="2584" width_o="3934" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88ac020b94e61fa80a97824ac735dd9896ba0d0ba14a81fcc05e5b12e7d0ac4f/AC-Larsen_Adidas-Label.jpg" data-mid="238429577" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/88ac020b94e61fa80a97824ac735dd9896ba0d0ba14a81fcc05e5b12e7d0ac4f/AC-Larsen_Adidas-Label.jpg" /><img width="8192" height="5464" width_o="8192" height_o="5464" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e621e810f9a5e179478cdd0ab8e07a49ef317c4954de25c24abb79058c707e3b/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-82.jpg" data-mid="238429581" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e621e810f9a5e179478cdd0ab8e07a49ef317c4954de25c24abb79058c707e3b/ICA-New-Contemporaries-High-Res-82.jpg" />Supper time,&nbsp;1990s G Plan dining chair, Adidas Originals tracksuit bottoms, stainless steel chainInstallation view at ICA London, New Contemporaries 2025 ©Copyright AC Larsen 2026. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/DUMP Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:41:27 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/DUMP Archive of Forgotten Forms Group exhibition curated by DUMP, SEAGER Gallery, 2025&nbsp; <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea28b579d4b7e4663afba6625f2da8a450fe517552058e68159fa57685d94840/AC_1-2.jpg" data-mid="238429859" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea28b579d4b7e4663afba6625f2da8a450fe517552058e68159fa57685d94840/AC_1-2.jpg" /><img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/091ac504840b21194d11c44079350cec9b240867d5f7c9659ac36b4c11adf504/AC_3.jpg" data-mid="238429860" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/091ac504840b21194d11c44079350cec9b240867d5f7c9659ac36b4c11adf504/AC_3.jpg" /><img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bfa5b657c4e33eb767f11dcbe6c920fa979f3fa7aa291b936706ec08ab619e72/web5.jpg" data-mid="238429861" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bfa5b657c4e33eb767f11dcbe6c920fa979f3fa7aa291b936706ec08ab619e72/web5.jpg" />Pathetic Phallusy, scaffolding, cast iron weightsInstallation view at Archive of Forgotten Forms, Seager Gallery 2025 A DUMP project Archive of Forgotten Forms SEAGER Gallery, London06.02 - 22.02.25 DUMP presents The Archive of Forgotten Forms, an exhibition that investigates the archive not as a static repository of the past but as a dynamic and speculative construct—a site where meaning is continuously reframed across temporal and conceptual boundaries. The exhibition brings together the launch of DUMP Doom Simulator, a video game set in a speculative future landscape, with artworks by seven artists exploring the creation and interpretation of artefacts across various contexts. Whether personal, collective, historical, or technological, these works interrogate the fragility of material memory, the role of technology in reimagining preservation, and the evolving cultural narratives that emerge from shifting contexts.Featuring: AC Larsen, Amy J Wilson, Chaney Manshu Diao, Christina Cushing, Clark Keatley, I. Nakhla, Isabelle Peas, Jingyi Yu, Li Yu, Maggie Menghan Chen, Wenxuan Chen and Yiyang Lu. ©Copyright AC Larsen 2025. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/ACTS-OF-UNION Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:00:51 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/ACTS-OF-UNION ACTS OF UNION Group exhibition curated by AC Larsen, Netil House, 2024 <img width="5760" height="3840" width_o="5760" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/864343d63bbdd382c61055f9f5c192f64f71bc510be428edcfd4d984638432b8/AC-5.jpg" data-mid="222819437" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/864343d63bbdd382c61055f9f5c192f64f71bc510be428edcfd4d984638432b8/AC-5.jpg" /> <img width="5612" height="3840" width_o="5612" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a97237bfd93808ace191b8eab74af934f5a6fbd409b4d22c9566edd4697ba02/AC-12.jpg" data-mid="222819628" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a97237bfd93808ace191b8eab74af934f5a6fbd409b4d22c9566edd4697ba02/AC-12.jpg" /> <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25cebd5dd5a3881c9192fe457456d4f69e23cd87bf42c1efba92052800736aa2/AC-47.jpg" data-mid="222819639" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25cebd5dd5a3881c9192fe457456d4f69e23cd87bf42c1efba92052800736aa2/AC-47.jpg" />Installation images from ACTS OF UNION, 2024, Hypha Studios <img width="5760" height="3840" width_o="5760" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a879a911e19342de57f216fa942671e01bde9c2379038276e8937e791ea1fd71/AC-57.jpg" data-mid="222819640" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a879a911e19342de57f216fa942671e01bde9c2379038276e8937e791ea1fd71/AC-57.jpg" /> Clara Scullion, Stop calling me resilient, 2021, Giclée prints on Hahnemüle Photo Rag, Installation shot <img width="3840" height="5760" width_o="3840" height_o="5760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/381f9aec35e7423e7d02c6aa38b2914f042db732eed72129d6d663e1bd8afc32/AC-31.jpg" data-mid="222819634" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/381f9aec35e7423e7d02c6aa38b2914f042db732eed72129d6d663e1bd8afc32/AC-31.jpg" />Beverley Duckworth, Raze, 2023, Discarded clothes, binder <img width="3523" height="5285" width_o="3523" height_o="5285" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a64b31cff7d2e32b41ed485fc587c89a3dba3abf3c2ede408d5c200a49b5e33c/AC-30.jpg" data-mid="222819633" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a64b31cff7d2e32b41ed485fc587c89a3dba3abf3c2ede408d5c200a49b5e33c/AC-30.jpg" /> A. Howard, Soothsayer, 2023, T-shirts, mountboard, ribbon <img width="5668" height="3840" width_o="5668" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/730758ba9af81f9cfab680429b51878fff012523f2a350e7b9673d0fa427cf81/AC-20-2.png" data-mid="222819631" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/730758ba9af81f9cfab680429b51878fff012523f2a350e7b9673d0fa427cf81/AC-20-2.png" /> Samuel Zhang, In The Place Where We Left And Arrived, 2023, Single-channel video, 20 mins 25 seconds, Installation shot <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7225c11dd654868e209572abfde5873a671dc1599f02618f044aba57ec423726/AC-64.jpg" data-mid="222819641" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7225c11dd654868e209572abfde5873a671dc1599f02618f044aba57ec423726/AC-64.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="5760" width_o="3840" height_o="5760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ffb3187c954faf6abc349da31a451ba02fcfaca790761c41d010996fe1ae078/AC-49.jpg" data-mid="222819652" border="0" data-scale="86" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ffb3187c954faf6abc349da31a451ba02fcfaca790761c41d010996fe1ae078/AC-49.jpg" /> AC Larsen, Bacon Butty, 2024, Fake King Charles III £50, bank notes, Kingsmill sliced white bread, Gold plated Cuban Chain, paper plate, Vintage wine table, Installation shot <img width="3840" height="5760" width_o="3840" height_o="5760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b607eeed879db8a9e198a1d1d688ee712ab1a9e70fb3d8ffebfe83f2893f18a4/AC-39.jpg" data-mid="222819637" border="0" data-scale="86" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b607eeed879db8a9e198a1d1d688ee712ab1a9e70fb3d8ffebfe83f2893f18a4/AC-39.jpg" /> Rosalind Wilson, Toffee, Hornet, Lioness, 2022, Weetabix box, acrylic paint, gold leaf, cross stitch. embroidery, gaffa tape, found objects <img width="5760" height="3840" width_o="5760" height_o="3840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/944cf58755542eff9f3bcb9fef6c4e9b89a11db052a0b6e8659fc8cc2239d0c2/AC-1.jpg" data-mid="222819623" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/944cf58755542eff9f3bcb9fef6c4e9b89a11db052a0b6e8659fc8cc2239d0c2/AC-1.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="5760" width_o="3840" height_o="5760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2609a75eba4f569d7874f680703de19d6368c5bf10cf0a86e23af5704743e248/AC-34.jpg" data-mid="222819635" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2609a75eba4f569d7874f680703de19d6368c5bf10cf0a86e23af5704743e248/AC-34.jpg" /> Jody Evans &amp; Dalia Araby, Pervert*, 2022, Framed silver gelatin print <img width="3723" height="5585" width_o="3723" height_o="5585" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b0922c6b27fe13ca3cb6943911d0c39326fcfbddde0cc24f3b9812eaa6f97418/AC-38.jpg" data-mid="222819636" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b0922c6b27fe13ca3cb6943911d0c39326fcfbddde0cc24f3b9812eaa6f97418/AC-38.jpg" /> Alexandra Warren, Trail plate ii, 2024, Glazed earthenware ACTS OF UNION Netil House, London 08.10.24 - 04.01.25&nbsp; We have been living in an era of revivalism’, wrote David Egerton in the Guardian in late June 2022, speaking specifically of revived notions of a [Great] Global Britain. From Brexit to hard borders, echoes of Rule Britannia have been ringing out loud and proud — political discourse, left and right alike, evoking visions of a ‘buccaneering’ Britain, here to steer us through the choppy deterioration of public services, culture wars, cost of living crises and rising far-right extremism. Convenient flag-wave aside, when is it finally time to ask, who exactly is the fallacy of the United Kingdom actually serving? Referencing the Acts of Union that created the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707, this exhibition stands as a point of rupture against nationalism, state sovereignty, imperialist legacy and political populism. Featuring works spanning photography, sculpture, textiles and moving image, this show brings together 14 emerging artists — with works that engage critically with what it means to live, work and sow new seeds of national identity against the backdrop of a post-Brexit, divided, binary Britain. Participating artists:&nbsp;Beverley Duckworth, Jody Evans &amp; Dalia Araby, A. Howard, AC Larsen, Dave McCorry, Joseff Morgan, Timothy Ogu, Isobel Scarsbrook, Clara Scullion, Alexandra Warren, Rosalind Wilson, Charlie Yetton, Samuel ZhangIn partnership with Hypha Studios, Netil House &amp; Eat Work Art. With thanks to support by Goldsmiths Exhibitions Hub. https://aclarsen.studio/writing Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:35:50 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/writing ︎︎︎&nbsp;Bodies, buildings (2024)︎︎︎ Mother (2024)︎︎︎ Give us our roses while we’re still here&nbsp;(2025) ©Copyright AC Larsen 2025. All rights reserved. https://aclarsen.studio/Bodies-buildings Sun, 24 Mar 2024 17:46:34 +0000 AC Larsen https://aclarsen.studio/Bodies-buildings Bodies, buildings &nbsp;‘I quickly realised the more truthful I try to be in language, the more I lie. One immediately comes up to language and learns either to be defeated or to let language fuck one, to fuck with language’. —Kathy Acker, ‘Politics’&nbsp;1 i have a crush. a literary crush. not with an author, per se. not even with a fictional character. but with a piece of writing itself. with a textual body. Whether or not it’s subversive or simply downright perverse to fancy a piece of art, for the past three years, I’ve had somewhat on-again, off-again, let’s call it a relational obsession with the late iconoclast Kathy Acker’s 1993 essay, ‘AGAINST ORDINARY LANGUAGE: THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY’ 2. I type it here capitalised because that’s how it appears in Yvonne Buchiem’s free online PDF, my go-to, with little wings around it. Said relational obsession began during the first year of my MFA, in late 2021. I’d never heard of Acker before a classmate mentioned this particular essay, quoting it as being formative for a piece of work where they had built a giant 5-foot functioning arsehole out of a partition wall, zipped themselves up into a brown sleeping bag and then continually shat themselves through the wall for an hour straight. My opinions on originality aside, obviously, I had to read the essay. Enter Yvonne Buchiem’s free online PDF and there’s your meet-cute. ~ Acker's essay begins with her describing that for some time, she’s been unsuccessfully trying to write about her personal experiences of bodybuilding. Acker explains that despite having been bodybuilding by this point for the better part of a decade, ‘time and time again’, whenever she puts pen to paper after being in the gym, she fails to write — observing that the ‘I’ who bodybuilds… was rejecting language’.2 Throughout the text Acker ponders on this conundrum, critically engaging with why the material act of bodybuilding seems to transcend verbal language — why bodybuilding seems indescribable using, what Acker calls, ‘ordinary language’. ‘If ordinary language or meanings lie outside essence, what is the position of that language game which I have named the language of the body? For bodybuilding (a language of the body) rejects ordinary language and yet itself constitutes a language, a method for understanding and controlling the physical which in this case is also the self.’ 2 On one, simplistic level, the text can be read as a criticism of cartesian readings of the body — that is, that there exists a dualism between the cognitive mind and physical body. But for Acker? Way too reductionist. This was an exercise, literally, in finding a new route for expression. Namely, expression that isn’t delimited by knowledge. Bodybuilding opened, as language can, a new form of world-making, possibility, vision. My interest in this text was initially purely academic, which made perfect sense; Like Acker, I’m a writer, an artist. Tick. My work also explores the boundaries between subjectivity, corporeality and linguistics. Tick. I’d also recently gotten into bodybuilding. Double-tick.But arseholes aside, there was one irreducible similitude between the text and I. my body was also rejecting language. It had started quite suddenly. The visceral recoiling at she’s and Ma’ms. The sudden jolt at gendered colloquialisms and terms that had been used to describe the sum of my parts for 27 years. Suddenly, the I looked wonky, off-kilter. I began obsessing over the text. Blue-tacked printouts, with scrawled notes grew like vines over my studio walls. Sticky notes with quips and quotes lined my laptop carry case. I wrote outtakes in the shower with my finger pressed on the steamed-up glass. I rolled prose out in my&nbsp;head whilst my barber shaved it. Highlighted passages would pop up like intrusive thoughts everywhere. Everywhere that is, except the obvious place — the gym. I too began to wonder if ‘ordinary language’ was eluding me. Embarrassingly, for all of my readings, re-readings, ponderings, musings — I didn’t have single a fucking clue what Acker was talking about. Beyond the blindingly obvious, the core conceptuality of the text was lost on me. The language felt too complex, too weighty. The references to Canetti and Wittgenstein I just couldn't grasp. Its subtle nuances and subjectivity were too slippery, the dots, subtracting. One at this point, months deep, might think — here lies the limit to my understanding. After all, Acker was a voracious reader of philosophy and these were not easy concepts. Perhaps I’m overthinking it? Perhaps this isn’t the kind of literature for me. Perhaps I am just a woman. A vagina and legs.But there was something in these words I couldn’t let go of. I knew the key to my body's corporeal word vomit recoil lay here. So I lent in more. I read more Acker, her other essays, plays, novels. I didn’t understand those either. I read her references, sources, listened to talks about her work by distinguished academics and writers — to no avail. I made the 1993 essay the focal point of a seminar presentation, referenced it in an artist talk and discussed it at length with my MFA tutor — all the while too embarrassed to ask the one simple question that would put me out of my intellectual misery — what the fuck does all this mean? Like the ex that just won’t text you back, Acker was giving me sweet nothing.~ Acker infamously stole from other writers. Whole sections of some of her works are paraphrased from other people's, ‘copy and pasting’ characters, plotlines, quotes. This plagiarism, as Acker later provocatively came to define it, became the hallmark of her fiction. She did this unapologetically — using it as a conceptual method to challenge the repressive socio-political structures that insist we occupy simply one bounded self. As Maggie Dohert wrote in the New Yorker, ‘Her fiction asked not “Who am I?” but, rather, in a more philosophical key, what it meant to have an “I”—or several’ 3. So maybe, I figured, I’m asking the wrong questions. Maybe it isn’t ‘what is this text trying to say’, but rather, ‘what does it mean to be in possession of this text’? Perhaps the last bastion of hope for me to understand Ackers words is to take a leaf out of her book, quite literally — to steal them. Face to Face with chaos all eyes on my failuresarms outstretched to oblivioni yield, i grow This is the passage that I, not quite so provocatively, plagiarised (let’s call it appropriated), the original reading: ‘To come face to face with chaos, with my own failure or a form of death’&nbsp;2. Taken, of course, from the 1993 essay, these words are from a section where Acker details the concept of pushing to failure within bodybuilding. ‘Failure’, is the term used for when your muscles have been worked up to the point where they physically can’t move any more weight. This process is necessary in bodybuilding to elicit hypertrophy, the building of more muscle. In order to grow a muscle, one must first break the muscle down. You want to do enough reps that you physically can’t do any more, but you don’t want to hurt or injure the muscle. To do this you must strive for ‘perfect form’ — that is, carrying out the movement in its most optimal pattern to target that muscle or muscle group. In other words, ultimately, you’re constantly striving to fail in the face of perfection. ~ My appropriated text was digitally printed in the black font Cormorant Garamond, on four 3m by 90cm white cotton sheets, one line of text per sheet, and presented like a concrete poem. The sheets were suspended from the ceiling with steel wires and left to dangle with the bottom edges sitting around 1m above the floor. Below the sheets sat four grey, plaster cast troughs, which at first glance look like they could be concrete. The troughs were situated underneath each suspended sheet, as if ready to catch the tumbling words. The first trough, laid under the first sheet, which read ‘Face to Face with chaos’, was fully intact. The second, under ‘all eyes on my failures’, was slightly broken around the edges, visibly marked and cracked. The third, ‘arms outstretched to oblivion’, was almost entirely destroyed, smashed into separate chunks dispersed within about 1m of the base of the work. The fourth trough, underneath, ‘i yield, i grow’, was again fully intact, but instead of sitting parallel to the base of the cloth like the previous troughs had, this one was pointing at an obtuse angle, toward a new direction. The piece was titled, ‘OBLIVION’. <img width="4016" height="2584" width_o="4016" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a426d49961d4bd3dbb0ab60797262980702acccd1a063b1f6e75434aebbb5fcd/oblivion-install-1-copy.jpg" data-mid="217694340" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a426d49961d4bd3dbb0ab60797262980702acccd1a063b1f6e75434aebbb5fcd/oblivion-install-1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4592" height="2584" width_o="4592" height_o="2584" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/866ec5712bd29b2d103e6a4294b1df83223be781791e75476c76ca8c0ef7b2b6/OblivionChaos-Detail.jpg" data-mid="217694342" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/866ec5712bd29b2d103e6a4294b1df83223be781791e75476c76ca8c0ef7b2b6/OblivionChaos-Detail.jpg" /><img width="4592" height="2442" width_o="4592" height_o="2442" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fa34f9f97e03453573fcbe497753fe3dba2a47f4f27e3712e87d0f2643e27d3e/Oblivion-trough-detail-copy.jpg" data-mid="217694341" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fa34f9f97e03453573fcbe497753fe3dba2a47f4f27e3712e87d0f2643e27d3e/Oblivion-trough-detail-copy.jpg" />‘Oblivion’, 2023 cotton, ink, plaster The work, as a whole, was transient. It felt caught between two states of being — not quite complete, but not really in need of anything to complete it either. The sheets swayed ethereally in response to the movement of bodies around them, whilst some of the printing ink had bled outside of its textual borders, giving the language a sense of fleeting inscription, like they were lifting from the cloth, very visibly to the material itself. There was also something about the fragility and porosity of the plaster used to create the troughs. Despite being vessels, by means of their production they were rendered useless. There was something quiet, poetic, but also violent about their placement and state. There was a sense of balance, rejuvenation, destruction. Contrary to the beguiling picture I’m painting of this work, I hated it. In some ways, I still hate it. The cotton sheets were too small and not heavy enough to have the impact I wanted them to. Their ends were puckered and curled up, making the material look cheap and flimsy. The bleeding ink was messy, blotted with printing errors and the troughs had all cured slightly different shades of grey, carrying different degrees of moisture. Easy errors to correct with another iteration. But I dismissed it. I threw away the troughs in a studio move. I recycled the metal and repurposed the cotton for use on another work. I didn’t revisit the Acker text for some time. Despite the endearment I’d poured over it throughout my MFA, it was markedly absent from my final thesis. I accepted defeat. ~ Some work, especially your own, takes time to grow on you. You have to sit with it, let it do its thing. Others, you’re just not ready for yet. Those are the ones that are hard to look at, hard to be around. But even if you can’t consciously face it, as Sin Wei Kin aptly put it in their recent panel talk at the Barbican — ‘sometimes our practices know things about us before we do’ 4. The nonconscious cognition5 is there all along, doing the heavy lifting. Some months after the making and subsequent breaking of ‘OBLIVION’, I came out as non-binary. Just like my biceps, I realised, in order to grow anew it was necessary to break down what was already there. I may not have been conscious of it at the time, but ‘OBLIVION’, imbued with its stolen, metamorphosed text, was the beginnings of this work. For the first time, through a language of the body no less, I was able to conceptually situate myself as something beyond the limitations that ‘ordinary language’ places on all of us. To&nbsp;break away from the terms that delimit us from birth to death — a vagina and legs, a penis and shoulders. Just like Acker’s legacy6 — ‘I’ the ‘I’ that bodybuilds the ‘I’ that is the artist the ‘I’ the writer the ‘I’ the friend the ‘I’ the partner the ‘I’ the child suddenly and easily becomes more than just one bounded self. Not merely a vessel, that by the means of its production is rendered useless, but something that is porous, plastic, shatterable, able to be realigned. Sculpture may have been the process that I was finally able to understand my transness through, but it was bodybuilding — the intensely physical act of resistance, breakdown, repair — that enabled me to face that transness. Or perhaps more importantly, to question what it meant to be in possession of that transness. For it’s this understanding of a continual closeness to failure, a continual striving for this ‘form of death’ in the face of perfection, or in other words total oblivion and movement through it — that is at the essence of trans experience. Acker asks ‘is the equation between destruction and growth also a formula for art?’ 2. In so far as life imitates art, we could also ask — is transness a formula for art? ~ A year later, as I move closer to myself, Acker’s essay finally makes sense — and her adapted words sing. ‘Adapt’ would be the correct literary term. But I prefer ‘expand’. Semantics, one might say. But here, the semantics matter. The definition of expand, according to Google, is: become or make larger or more extensive; (of the universe) undergo a continuous change; become less reserved in character or behaviour. My partner recently asked me ‘what does transition feel like?’ I said, ‘expanse’. Notes Acker, K. (1972). Politics. Papyrus Press, ChicagoAcker, K. (1993). ‘Against Ordinary Language: The Language of the Body’, Bodies of Work, London: Serpent's TailGrosz, E. (1994). Volatile bodies: toward a corporeal feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University PressDohert, M. (2022). ‘Kathy Acker’s Art of Identity Theft’, Nov 28, 2022, New Yorker. (Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/05/kathy-ackers-art-of-identity-theft)Wei Kin, S. (2023). ‘Sin Wei Kin &amp; Planningtorock: Manifesting Alternate Realities’, BarbicanHales, K. (2019). ‘’Nonconscious Cognition’ &amp; Kathy Acker’s ‘Language of the Body’’, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, (Available at: https://www.ica.art/learning/nonconscious-cognition-and-kathy-acker-s-language-of-the-body)McBride, J. (2022) Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker, New York: Simon &amp; Schuster&nbsp;©Copyright AC Larsen 2025. All rights reserved.