Welcome to the Rabbit Hole: A Life-Changing Journey

This post is a collection of some of the things that have been inspiring and intriguing lately. It started with a travel-log, but somewhere along the way it became much bigger than that. It is a documentation of the visual references I’ve been collecting, the ideas I’ve been researching, and the queer corners of the internet I’ve been discovering. Think of this less as a finished essay and more as a collection of doors you can open, links you can explore, and rabbit holes you can follow me into.

Part I – An Inspiring Journey

I just came back from a three-week trip to celebrate my 29th birthday. I was visiting my grandparents in NYC, but I took a few detours to Philly and Chatham too. It was lovely to see old friends, hang out with family members (many of whom I don’t see as often as I wish, unfortunately), revisit some of my favorite spots, and find new ones too!

For a bit of context: my dad’s side of the family is from NYC, and I went to college in Philadelphia. So I was very surprised by how transformative a “return” trip was. I was expecting to see the same old things and indulge in some nostalgia, while spending quality time with my aging grandparents. I don’t know if it was my pre-birthday astral energy, the end of my fourth septennial, or something else, but I had a lot of realizations and insights throughout the trip—both personal, creative, and a mix of both.

A lot of that doesn’t necessarily belong in this space, but I’m happy to share the infinite inspirations I found throughout the trip.

I got to visit many museums and galleries, while also finding inspiration in the streets, familiar places, and all the little details in between.

Visual Research – I wanted to share a compilation of my art references, with all the pictures I took in the many, many museums and galleries I visited during this trip. But I ran into two issues: 1. The size of the files. The image collages are HUGE and would probably kill your phone data just by opening this page. 2. Copyright concerns. I’m a little worried about sharing images of artworks publicly, even if I properly cite and credit them.

My solution was to share my visual research as a PDF for download (coming soon), if you’re interested in diving deeper into my recent inspirations. I’ve grouped my references into visual motif boards, so rather than being organized by museum or artist, they’re organized around the visual ideas and elements that caught my attention.

A lot of the motifs I was drawn to were texture, scale, and movement, spanning textiles, documentary work, ceramics, paintings, architecture, photography, printwork, digital and multimedia work, among other oddities.

You can also browse through the websites of the art institutions I visited to get inspired yourself. A lot of them have digital copies of their archives online, or at least photographs of their current exhibitions that you can learn more about through your own research.

NYC Museums:

The Met — What I saw: The new fashion wing, sculptures, Asian art, the classics.

MoMA — What I saw: They changed the exhibits to be organized by chronology or themes instead of the former media-based categorization. Great improvement—much richer dynamics and conversations between works. The Frida and Diego – The Last Dream exhibit was breathtaking; Frida is an important inspiration to my work and it was a dream-come-true to see so many of her famous originals in one place.

The Frick Collection — What I saw: My first time there. A great collection of the classics, glazed with a layer of patriarchal-ick.

Cooper Hewitt — One of my favorite museums in the city. What I saw: Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection — an interesting design and multimedia collection on display downstairs; Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne — a surprisingly moving photographic exhibit; and the unique multimedia experience of The Substitute on the second floor.

The Banksy Museum — What I saw: A wider range of mediums and themes than expected. A lot of comically subversive and acidic critiques of late-stage capitalist horrors.

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NYC Galleries:

The Drawing Center — Pope.L special exhibition, with multiple series of his visual and performative work. Worth knowing the name for its subversiveness.

Artists Space — Shani Strand: Everything Must Be Returned

Freight + Volume — True Colors by Meghan Brady, Mary DeVincentis, Jai Hart, Riad Miah, Ilse Sørensen Murdock, Julia Rooney, Cordy Ryman, and Paul Sevigny.

Derek Eller Gallery — Sarah Gamble

Isabel Sullivan — closed when I visited, but the online archive is interesting.

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Philly:

PMA — What I saw: American art, textiles, classical art, figure drawings, and a stop at the sister Rodin Museum. Specific exhibits: Workshops of the World; A Nation of Artists.

ICA Philadelphia — I didn’t go this time, but it’s worth checking out!

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Click Here Blue — (Beware: heavy document! 7MB PDF)

On a more personal note, you can also click here (Beware: Heavy doc!) to wander through the special moments of my trip, featuring loved ones, nature, city life, and cute memories.

Part II – The Insight: Deep Diving into Cyberfeminism

The trip gave me a lot to look at, but the most transformative part of it wasn’t any single artwork, place, or experience—it was the connections that started forming between them. There is something about being away from your usual routines, spending a lot of time on your own, moving through familiar places from a different point in your life, and simply having the time and space to notice your own thoughts. Visual references, conversations, books, passing thoughts, and those tiny moments where something suddenly clicks all began weaving together into a much bigger realization.

It’s been a month since I came back from the trip (while I’ve been organizing all this material!), and the energy of rebirth and deep learning/inspiration has continued to flourish in my life. I’ve been playing with the new visual references I acquired in my ongoing practices, like woodworking, crochet, and drawing. I’ve been thinking, planning, and researching bigger projects for the future—both visual and multimedia ideas.

But most of all, and most intenselly, I’ve been deep into research mode, specifically around the world of cyberfeminism—a term I learned right before going on my trip that has been the trigger for a recent creative/personal catharsis.

The term connects multiple threads of interest for me and solidifies my lifelong research into a specific, existing field. It’s not a new term, either. In reading some of the pillar texts of this creative and political movement, I’ve been continuously surprised by how current and applicable these ideas feel to today’s world, even though many of them are 20–30 years old.

If you’d like to embark on this journey with me and read more about cyberfeminism, feel free to check out what I’ve been finding and consuming about the topic here.

(BTW, Are.na is a great new resource I found for archiving and sharing references, links, and media online. It has a great community of academics and researchers, and you can easily find a lot of interesting new material to dive into and enrich your research. It’s also a simple and effective organizational tool.)

Part III – Down the Rabbit Hole

Connected, but not linearly, to all of this is the state of the internet and the cultural shift happening online.

People are fed up with social media, big-corporate digital slop, AI-filled content, and the current state of the internet as a whole. A resurgence of the nostalgic, old-school internet, as well as a more tactile/material relationship with electronics, seems to be happening with a lot of strength.

To me, it feels like a reflection of people’s mental states as we deal with late-stage capitalism, increasingly authoritarian and fascist governments, and the very real consequences of global warming. People are craving connection, community, and a stronger relationship with nature as a whole.

With all this, a trend of creating personal websites and indie games is coming back with a lot of strength, and I am LOVING IT.

As a zillennial, I grew up playing games online, rabbit-holing through the internet, and having this exploratory, community-based relationship with the web. The term whimsy is also very popular right now, and I think it describes this energy well: the wandering and wonder of the internet.

I highly recommend browsing through this side of the internet! There is so much to see, read, and interact with. So many creative experiences and interesting corners of the World Wide Web are still very much active.

Here is a list of websites I’ve found recently to start your journey. But don’t stop there—follow people’s digital neighbors and web rings (linked websites) to find new ones.

Please share any gems you come across, and have fun!