Tabitha Nikolai
“SICK TRANS-SEX GLORIA” IS AN INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT WHEREIN VISITORS EXPLORE THE RUINS OF A DILAPIDATED SKYSCRAPER WHICH HAS BECOME THE SETTLEMENT OF A FAR FUTURE COVEN OF TRANSGENDER WOMEN.
Gameplay from “Sick Trans-sex Gloria” (2017) courtesy of Tabitha Nikolai.
The ruins sit above a vast field of soybeans the women cultivate to derive estrogen for their gender affirming hormone regimen, becoming what the artist refers to as “Soyborgs.”
Users traverse the digital terrain using an analog 10-keypad and mouse in an homage to PC gaming and the virtual spaces which provide community and catharsis for queer users who may temporarily escape the conditions of offline life to revel in trans-futurist fantasies. Pink orchids populate the ruin’s levels and provide disparate, sometimes cryptic insight into the covens’ history and the life of Gloria Monday, a “Soyborg field operative” who recounts her experience of transmigration and transition. Both the title of the work and that of its protagonist plays upon the latin phrase Sic transit gloria mundi which serves as a reminder of the transitory nature of life.
Installation View: Tabitha Nikolai, “Sick Trans-sex Gloria” featured in Queer Futurities, The Hokin, 2023
In keeping with Nikolai’s overarching practice with investigates the boundaries of embodiment and identity in both physical and virtual worlds, Sick Trans-sex Gloria is an exercise in speculative queer worldbuilding which posits a far future which blurs the boundaries between prosthesis (whether virtual, hormone, or silicone) and the body.
Tabitha Nikolai is a New Orleans-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice incorporates sculptural installation, new media, and text. Nikolai received her MFA in Visual Studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Find her on Instagram @tabby_twitchit and her website, tabithanikolai.com.