Who Are They?
Vie Darling (they/them) posing in front of their installation at Hunter College Fall 2022 Open Studios
Artist Statement
I grew up watching 90s MTV, which foregrounded my love for media and fascination with pop culture. Glamour and maximalism is America’s global identity as communicated via our entertainment media. Media is a primary institution of indoctrination, second only to the family. Its critical power is often underestimated and pop culture seen as unimportant to great consequence. Recognizing its impact, my artistic interest is to subvert this institution from within, appropriating popular aesthetics in familiar mediums – ranging from sound architecture to film & video to painting– as a Trojan horse for radical ideas.
I call the colonial social structure the “false matrix” in that it is a psychological projection, only real in as much as we make it so. It positions individuals into overlapping hierarchical webs that determine their value and access– its violence is very real.
The social projections my form carries identify me as the demonized Other, marking my experience with mortal peril. This is the role I am expected to play. Acceptance of this identity would rob me of my agency and the infinite opportunities that exist outside the imaginary limitations imposed by this obscene structure.
The naïeve internalization of the violent impositions pushed me towards a provocative, iconoclastic personality as well as a punk aesthetic and camp sensibility. Navigating chaos and danger in the world around me pushed me into an obsession with the fantastic and an addiction to imagination – sanctuaries crafted in the Unseen.
My creative practice serves as an exorcism, distilling my prima materia into its essence; my work, as portals into the sublime.
This rebellion against the puritanical hierarchy of colonial capitalism– conjured from the blood, sweat, tears, and veritable tons of flesh of indigenous peoples the world over– parallels the reactionary nature of Rococo art against the rigidity of French classicism. I find myself attracted to the lush decadence of Rococo not just for its brights and pastels but because the adornment and excessive ornamentation– which was later seen as gauche– feels to me like a reminder of the boundless potential and generosity of the feminine.
Coding has long been a means of protection, safety, and survival for oppressed groups. I continue this legacy of occultism within this anti-indigenous death machine we call “Western civilization”, loading esoteric and subcultural symbols, icons, and indexes into my media the same way industry magnates do to signify that which if you know, you know.
My work is a reminder that infinite abundance is the inherent nature of the Universe, and birthright of all beings– not just the privileged elite. Co-opting the inherently excessive, superfluous aesthetics of luxury – especially as a Black member of the proletariat and an indigenous African– is a subversion of the Protestsant Puritanism that undergirds colonial capitalism. It is a rejection of the desecration of femininity and the glorification of masculinity, austerity, and rigidity. It is a reminder that life doesn’t have to be so serious, and we could all benefit from a lot more fun.
Artist Biography
Born to Liberian immigrants in Columbia, Maryland in 1994 CE, Vie Darling is an Oracular Aeon and Aethereal Being based in Brooklyn, NY, pioneering Cosmic Wellness—an esoteric practice rooted in a Shadow Work framework they call Spiritual Abolition. With over two decades of study in spirituality, mysticism, and magick, Vie’s mission is to catalyze a Cosmic Revolution of Love through Sacred Acts of Creation.
They have served as Resident Astrologer for Sad Girls Club and Texts From Planet; led guided meditations for Nike; and facilitated spiritual workshops with The Wing, Playground Coffee Shop, Ace Hotel New York, POWRPLNT, and more, including teaching their Spiritual Abolition workshop at the University of Oregon. Their sanctuary, The Aetherium, is devoted to facilitating healing for individuals and groups.
As a writer and artist, Vie has been published in The Freque, The Mighty, Afropunk, Polyester Zine, and in print with Montez Press, appearing in the Montez x Mathew fellowship publication The Only Thing That’s New Is Us (2017) and the Interjection Calendar 004 as the May 2018 artist with their zine GODDESS I. Their exhibition history includes Death Becomes Her at Powrplnt Gallery (2018), Eminent Domain with Art 511 (2018), In Poor Taste VI at Ace Hotel New York (2020), TEXTS at Haul Gallery (2020), (em)body at The Flex Space (2022), Desire Lines at the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery (2022), and DonChristian Jones’s The Sumptuous Discovery of Gotham a Go-Go at MoMA PS1 (2025).
INQUIRIES:
viedarling13@gmail.com
PLEASE NOTE: my pronouns are they/them . i am a safe space for marginalized identities and bodies, including trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming folks. i am a radical humanist centered in equity building for Black and Indigenous peoples. please be mindful and respectful of these characteristics of my person if interested in reaching out.
