What superpowers do artists need to create and survive in the arts universe? In Up, Art and Away! TextaQueen seeks to draw out answers via bold and bright superhero scenarios, peeking out of the Arts House windows.

TextaQueen is Australia’s felt-tip superhero. Her portraits use the humble and unforgiving felt-tip pen – aka ‘Texta’ – to explore the complex politics of race, sexuality, gender and identity in tandem with ideas of self-image and interpersonal relationships. Born out of a collaborative exchange of ideas between artist and subject, TextaQueen’s work articulates delicate interplays between vulnerability and empowerment, intimacy and exhibitionism, and subjective and collective expressions of feminist, queer, racial and cultural identities.

This work has been collaboratively developed with students from St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre, North Melbourne.