Babeworld - Ashleigh Williams and Gabriella Davies

Entitled Deptford X Deptford, this piece explores the attachment of two artists (Ashleigh Williams she/her and Gabriella Davies she/her) to fictional characters in the anime Hunter x Hunter.

We’ve all had our look around the art world – predominantly white cis middle class men, making art about, well, whatever they feel like. With the world set up for the most privileged to navigate smoothly, us marginalised folk have very few frames of reference when it comes to cruising or clawing through life, let alone the art realm. With this in mind – how do you find yourself represented in mainstream media and popular culture- if at all?

Entitled Deptford X Deptford, this piece explores the attachment of two artists (Ashleigh Williams she/her and Gabriella Davies she/her) to fictional characters in the anime Hunter x Hunter. Using the mistreatment of Illumi and Alluka Zoldyck to discuss our placement within society, we aim to weave tales of our lived experience with scenes from HxH – whilst convincing the audience why we think Illumi is Autistic and Alluka is trans. We debate the highs and lows of trans and autistic representation, offering a dialogue the art world and academia often skims over

DeptfordXDeptford aired on Monday 12 July, listen to the full segment here.

Collaborators Ashleigh Williams (she/her) and Gabriella Davies (she/her), more commonly known as Babeworld, seek to create a more representative art world through the creation of art and facilitation of events, for those who are marginalised in the arts. With an emphasis on collaboration and co-creation, Babeworld’s practice focuses on themes of political and societal identity, specifically disability/access, mental health, sex work and ‘poverty porn’. Babeworlds community building and marketing strategy to audiences and participants consists of oversharing (otherwise known as attention-seeking) on the internet, in arts networks and through their events. By collaborating with other underrepresented artists, Babeworld cultivates networks to grow their online platform to fundraise and create grants for marginalised people and communities every month.

Babeworld runs the lecture series ‘Don’t Worry I’m Sick and Poor’ which has recently been delivered with ICA London, and they have been commissioned by organisations including East Street Arts, Montez Press, Huffpost, Gal-Dem, Shape Arts, Unlimited and Institute of Contemporary Art. They are committed to bringing their ideas and networks to institutions and organisations in the art world, whether the art world wants to hear it or not

Instagram: @babeworld3000

sites.google.com/view/babeworld

Babeworld YouTube