HUMAN RESOURCES
In a post sea level rise Florida, most tech has been replaced with bio-tech. Phones have to be fed and kept healthy. Trains look more like millipedes than trains. And convicted felons are subjected to “updates” that make them less human and more animal. Or at least, that’s the dominant narrative. Inno Saintilien isn’t so sure that she’s the monster everyone says she is. In fact, she thinks she might be more comfortable in her body now that she’s not human. Now that no one looks at her and thinks about sex.
This project, which I am currently working on, is a book-length image/text hybrid project called Human Resources. How we define humanness, and how we police that culturally. How we define authenticity, and how we police that culturally. This project is particularly interested in the spectrums of sexuality and how we police them culturally. How we create cultural binaries that shrink our view of what’s possible and what’s “right”: woman/man, human/machine, the idolization of the nuclear family and traditional sexual dynamics vs. the othering of various incarnations of sexuality. Human Resources uses the genre of science fiction to exaggerate current social and political policing of these binaries to expose their weaknesses and the consequences of binary thinking for everyone. It is also, incidentally, an exploration of the consequences of late-stage capitalism and our current sociopolitics on people and on the climate. And a murder mystery, and a monster story.
The images in the gallery below are from 2019. At that time, I thought the book would be a traditional graphic novel. However, over the intervening years, I decided a more hybrid image/text format would better suit the content and my goals for the project. Images from the new version are on their way.
A comics essay about the things girls do to look good and the effects those efforts have. Published by the Rumpus in their Spotlight series in 2019.
A comics chapbook about tattoos, getting a tattoo, the history of tattoos, and gender issues…when it comes to tattoos. Published by Sweet Publications in 2015.
A comic about the art of translation that Claire drew and Edward Gauvin wrote. Published by the Arkansas International in 2018.
A comic about the art and pain of translation that Claire drew and Edward Gauvin wrote. Published by Words Without Borders in 2017.
IMAGE/Text
