Uxkme / Morphogenic Angels: I know who I am, although I have forgotten who I am #486881693

Uxkme (which means “old woman” in Téenek) is part of Omoiyari, a collaborative artwork made by the artist collective Keiken and Gabriel Massan. First displayed around the busy streets of Soho in Central London at The Photographers Gallery (2022), the posters in this series encouraged passers-by to explore a speculative world by encountering some of its inhabitants.

Omoiyari translates as compassion in Japanese. Each poster in the series features a slogan in the style of an advert. When positioned in busy, retail-driven areas, these expressions of love, tenderness, and infinite possibility inspire us to challenge and expand the pre-existing structures and limitations of our reality. They subvert the idea that adverts sell desires, and instead examine the depths and complexities of being a spirit within a body.

In this work, Uxkme—a fragile avatar trapped in the thick gel of time—struggles to remember themselves while maintaining the muscle memory of their spirit. To practice compassion, one must be a student of the invisible.