existential boner
Mahalia taje Giotto
existential boner is a personal work about obsessions related to the body, identity and sexuality. It was published as a book by SPBH and ECAL in July 2023, and is also an installation.
Mahalia taje Giotto is and has always been a trans person; they chose to identify as non-binary and started their gender-affirming hormone therapy in November 2020. They closely and compulsively monitored the changes they were undergoing, as a way of reappropriation of their own self. Doing so, photography was for taje the best way to record all of these steps, following the never ending rhythm of their obsessive thoughts. Through a compilation of images and texts, including collages, graffiti,
vernacular photography, studio shoots, snapshots, and scans, taje’s body of work evolved in parallel with their own body, developing in a direction that emphasized the urgent feelings crawling through their mind, ultimately telling a singular story that brings representation to many—representation that
was lacking in their childhood.
Inspired by photographers and artists such as Helena Almeida, Francesca Woodman, Pierre Molinier, Cindy Sherman and many others, taje drew from these influences their creativity looking to explore the limits of photography.
