The Electric Apostles (2025) is a video frieze featuring cultural bearers and nightlife producers based in virtual reality communities. 

This immersive multi-panel video work depicts a still tableau of people in their embodied virtual reality avatars that comes to life for a series of movements before returning to a state of rest, and the back wall showcases statuesque 3D scans of two New York based Drag Kings.

The piece asks viewers to contemplate themselves as part of the histories that have not yet been canonized, this living frieze evokes the activeness of history, calling to attention a world being developed in a parallel and often unseen virtual reality. 

[Custom Object] lip-sync//dance at CounterPulse with Skirt Cocaine and Ambrose Trataris.

Dance video with full cast of [Custom Object] lip-sync//dance.

  • A person with colorful makeup, wavy hair, and a playful expression is wearing a studded jacket and accessories, set against a vibrant, neon-lit background.

    Skirt Cocaine (he/they) is a mixed Filipino drag king and show producer in LA’s queer punk scene. With an aesthetic ranging from Kpop to rococo, he explores the wide range of masculinity and identity outside the bounds of toxic whiteness. He is also a videographer and content creator for a number of drag shows in LA.

  • Person with styled hair, bold green eye makeup with rhinestones, wearing a dark blazer, standing outdoors near green foliage.

    Salimatu Amabebe aka Barracuda (they/he) is a Nigerian-American chef, performer and multimedia artist based in the East Bay Area. Amabebe performs under the stage name, Barracuda – a multi-gender avatar who views itself as a manifestation of collective digital fantasy aka a “crowd-sourced slut.”

  • Person with red hair wearing large black sunglasses with spiderweb and eye designs, laughing with mouth open, in a room with furniture and mirrors.

    Killian Thelonious Church aka Urheinous (they/them) is a queer multidisciplinary artist, producer and performer. Their work often deals with the reckoning of their own queer identity through the intersections of trauma and mental health, resulting in a horrific and comical mix of abjection and absurdity.

  • A person dressed in colorful, fantasy-inspired makeup and outfit, holding a star-shaped necklace, with a holographic background.

    Patrick Santos aka Cash Monet (he/they) is a performer, maker, and dry humor aficionado. Cash Monet’s style is kitschy, glitchy, and a little sticky, inspired by asian culture, video games, and nerd culture.

  • A woman with curly hair applying sunscreen on her face outdoors with a clear sky in the background.

    Hannah Ayasse aka Hands (she/they) Hannah builds community through collaborative creative process and resolutely believes in the body as a source of knowledge. Hannah is interested in Relationship as a “third thing,” its own mutable and powerful entity, existing in and of itself.

  • A person standing in front of colorful, abstract, digital light projections with pink, purple, and blue hues. The individual is dressed in a dark suit and holding a white object in front of a wall with vivid digital displays.

    Special thanks to Peter Wu+ (he/him) for being a conceptual advisor and supporter of the work. In 2020, he founded and created EPOCH, an artist-run virtual experiment that functions as an inclusive community building platform inviting established and emerging artists working in both digital and analog mediums to participate.

Photo documentation by Emily Smeja & Vita Hewitt 2023. Artwork by Ambrose Trataris & Lucy Black.