Xavier Ho. Juried Artist
SAE
Vacant Assembly
Artist Statement
Infinite Colours brings 2,499 videogame titles into a slow canvas of accumulative light. Each game adds a unique shape and colour onto the canvas and plays a unique string of notes. Over 8 hours, the canvas will be filled with infinite colours to celebrate LGBTQIA+ independent videogames.
History has always been queer. Through this generative visual and sound work, we aim to demonstrate the collective activism, movement, and creative expressions that queer folks are making to be visible, heard, and to say that we are here.
But queer movement does not happen overnight; queer resistance is accumulative and built over generations of self-sacrifice and self-acceptance. The multitude intersectionality of the Everywhen slowly bleeds colour into the world, blends motion into the landscape, and accumulatively becomes a canvas of evermoving colourful light.
The visual execution is much inspired by the Slow Art movement, as well as the light works of Garry Fabien Miller and James Turrell. Conceptually, it depicts 45 years of the history of the Rainbow Flag invented by the late Gilbert Baker and celebrates the queer resistance that is the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras through queer videogames.
About the artists
Xavier Ho is an award-winning designer focusing on the queer independent games community. He is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at Monash University, Visiting Fellow in Sexuality Studies at the University of Sydney, and alumni of the ABC TOP 5 Arts. He initiated and led the curation of Pride at Play, a public queer exhibition that celebrates thoughtful LGBTQIA+ games in Oceania and the Asia Pacific. The exhibition won the Good Design Award in Social Impact in 2023. Xavier’s creative practice takes a hope-punk approach on the feeling of queerness and what it means to play with pride. He has exhibited at the Victorian Pride Centre, Carlisle Street Arts Space, Library at the Dock Gallery, ICC Sydney, No Vacancy Gallery, and Tin Sheds Gallery.
Stephen Krol is a musician, researcher and mathematician with industry experience as a machine learning engineer. He is currently undertaking his PhD under the supervision of Dr Maria Teresa Llano and Prof Jon McCormack. His research involves building deep generative models for music variation. The aim is for these systems to be used as tools to aid in the creative search process.
Credits: Xavier Ho and Stephen Krol
URL: https://jtg.design/