Conjunctiva

I had chicken pox quite late, which meant that when my sister finally gave them to me (around10?) I became deathly sick. I had chicken pox in my hair, in the inside *of my lungs* and even on the palms of my hands. Everywhere. I was a temporary leper.

After I got better I suddenly grew a red growth on the white of my right eye. My mother took me to the doctor who told me that I had a chicken pock on my eyeball because of the bad case I had of them and the red growth was the scar. My doctor told me that if I wanted they could cut it off but I would have to be conscious and they would literally need to stitch my eyeball up with dissolving stitches which would dissolve post-op in a matter of weeks. It scared the shit out of a young me.

As a teenager my eye growth would glow monster red when I was exhausted or high - which ended up being most of the time during. Teachers always felt super awkward asking me if I was stoned, even when I came to Business Maths reeking of weed because my eye was red all the time anyway. As a young actor I lost countless commercial jobs because my eye read as ‘I’m high af’ on screen. I don’t want to have the red spot cut away now. It’s a part of me. This piece is about mortality.

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TOM CHRISTOPHERSEN is a Sydney based, award winning, Queer performer and visual artist whom is as petrified of beautiful things and death as much as he is transfixed by them. It is primarily the car-crashing of these two themes which permeate the hyper-realistic, almost surrealistic, often dark portraits and films he produces.
Tom aims to bring focus back to portraiture that is of a level of detail it demands an intimate level of engagement from the viewer. Working almost exclusively on watercolour paper with watercolour pencil and acrylic, Tom hopes his traditional, technical approach to drawing and painting provide a fresh, immediate offering to portraiture and indeed representation of the self. The figures and themes within Tom’s work are often autobiographical and based on real life experiences.

Tom’s artistic intention has always been to make images that create the necessary disturbances in order to provoke permanent, positive change.
Commission, print and sale enquiries are available via request.

Tom lives and works on the stolen Gadigal lands of the Eora Nation.