Your art practice is like a way of trying on new identities, faces, and highly expressive skins each day. How do you see your photographs as a way of projecting an avatar of yourself?

I took up self portraiture because I was seeing a lot of stupid selfies and the same faces everyday of the same beautiful girls, and I wanted to push against this and use my body to become anyone I wanted. I started out just taking funny photos for myself and my friends, so I wasn’t too aware of how my work could become popular or shareable. I wasn’t really thinking about creating “famous” projects, but then one day I dressed as an egg, and that photo started trending. That’s when I started to reflect on how if I just posted a picture of myself having fun, people would share it. It’s that simple.

I find it interesting how you combine self portraiture with sculptural materials to build extensions of yourself. Much in the way people have integrated technology, like Instagram for instance, into their own bodies, you’ve integrated these materials into yourself. Because of this, are there materials you’re drawn to more than others?

Since most materials tend to be expensive, I like to work with cardboard. It’s very useful for everyday ideas, and the main thing I want to show in my work is the idea. If a brand collaborator wants to pay for expensive materials, of course I’ll use them, but on my own, it feels useless to use too many materials. And if Instagram, the main platform where I showcase my work, is censoring me, why would I want to spend $5,000 on one idea for a photo that could get taken down?

So Instagram censors your work?

I think Instagram is going mad. It’s the new century of shadowban and censor. You can’t find my username when you search for it, and I don’t get notified when you mention me in my own comments section.

Are you afraid that if you remain in the shadowban, your Instagram statistics will go down and brands will not want to work with you, and then your monetary value will decrease? Do you think that going forward, your work will change and you’ll start censoring yourself?

The problem for me isn’t the number of likes. That doesn't matter. My problem is that my audience and collaborators don't see my work. People find me through Instagram, and they can’t see what I make when I’m shadowbanned. I’m nervous to post anything with dark humour or nudity. My friends are all getting censored for posting small jokes online. 

Initially, I could use Instagram to promote myself, and it felt like a good place to be because everyone could be who they wanted. I don’t remember shadowbans or restrictions that prevented anyone from becoming popular or promoting themselves. I never had any problems, and I was able to grow a huge audience, and only in the past year have I noticed restrictions being activated on my account.

And when the Covid lockdowns started, you felt like you had this liberating freedom of having a location to be yourself. And as it turned out, thousands of people loved what you had to say and wanted to see more of it. But once you built a successful name for yourself and began to monetize your work through fashion design collaborations, you felt restrictions being placed on your voice. You realized that despite all of the fandom and positive attention, someone somewhere had designed a system that says that what you're doing is wrong, that what you're doing is inappropriate.

Yeah, one of Instagram’s most important functions is the ability to use it for self-promotion. But if that’s taken away from you, then the function of Instagram is low. I'm the main person in my ideas, and the ideas couldn't exist without me. When I look at my body of work, it’s all about me and my energy and my mind and what I feel. Without seeing a part of me, I don’t think people can believe in my work.

That makes me think — does the Instagram algorithm have its own death drive? If it eliminates its users’ ability to share their own ideas, how does Instagram survive?