Exo-Kids project is about bullying. I’ve drawn six imaginary exosuits for imaginary children who have been bullied. I made all artistic work in Urban Nation's artist in residence -program in Berlin. It was a great opportunity for me to concentrate on my artistic voice for three months.
Each suit / character represents a type of bullying. The six types of bullying are: sexual bullying, relational agression (emotional bullying), cyber bullying, physical bullying, verbal bullying, prejudicial bullying (race, religion, sexual orientation).
Sexual BullyingThis fictional character has gone through sexual shaming on the verge of her transformation from a child into a young woman. Her own trasformation is delicate enough, but on top of that she has had to go through something very humiliating.
She likes nature, animals, hiking and outdoors. Her suit is inspired by nature. The exosuit represents her transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly. The deer characteristics are rather obvious and so are the butterfly wings, but the structure on the wings is from praying mantis’ wing structure. Also the deer legs are shaped more like insects legs and less deer-like.
The mushroom structure on the cheek of the suit represents growth.
Relational Agression
Relational agression is form of bullying in which the person is often shut out of a group and excommunicated. In this suit the octopus tentacles represent control. She is taking control of her life and relationships, friendships. The octopus and its tentacles are common representation of male dominance in Japanese popculture, but in this suit the tentacles is for her to take control back.
On the head glass bubble there’s satellites to control the herd of drones she has created for herself. Drones are her crowd of friends. On the top of the glass bubble there’s Tank Girl -like hair. Tank Girl is her idol.
Cyber Bullying
This suit is a samurai inspired suit. The peaceful warrior symbolism and ideology is close to the kid’s heart. The shapes of the suit and the clothing is from samurai armors.
The multiple eyes on the suit represent the need to see and to be seen. Cyber bullying can be very anonymous and faceless type of bullying. This suit lets the person see the bullies and get to the root of the problem.
Physical Bullying
This suit is for a character who needs to stand up agains physical bullying. This imaginary kid is into brutalist architecture and big machines. He’s pretty tall himself. Despite his physical appearance he has encountered physical bullying. This suit helps him defend himself. The armor is like a large building or a tower with feet of steel, a bit like Colossus from Marvel comics. This exo suit can also just be still.
Verbal Bullying
This kid likes american cars and is into hot rod -culture. Something that's not a common thing to like as a teenager. Name-calling has been a problem for him. It has left long-lasting deep emotional scars on his psyche. He loves rock music but is unable to attend concerts bbecause of hearing loss. He has a hearing aid. In his exo-suit there are parts of american cars from 1960's and concept cars from 1970's to 1990's.
Prejudicial Bullying (Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation)
The cat exo suit is for a character that is loud and happy. She tries not to care about the bullying, but it's hard since she is quite a visible character. She is friendly, but often is faced with racially charged bullying. She has even faced hate crimes.
Each suit / character represents a type of bullying. The six types of bullying are: sexual bullying, relational agression (emotional bullying), cyber bullying, physical bullying, verbal bullying, prejudicial bullying (race, religion, sexual orientation).
Sexual BullyingThis fictional character has gone through sexual shaming on the verge of her transformation from a child into a young woman. Her own trasformation is delicate enough, but on top of that she has had to go through something very humiliating.
She likes nature, animals, hiking and outdoors. Her suit is inspired by nature. The exosuit represents her transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly. The deer characteristics are rather obvious and so are the butterfly wings, but the structure on the wings is from praying mantis’ wing structure. Also the deer legs are shaped more like insects legs and less deer-like.
The mushroom structure on the cheek of the suit represents growth.
Relational Agression
Relational agression is form of bullying in which the person is often shut out of a group and excommunicated. In this suit the octopus tentacles represent control. She is taking control of her life and relationships, friendships. The octopus and its tentacles are common representation of male dominance in Japanese popculture, but in this suit the tentacles is for her to take control back.
On the head glass bubble there’s satellites to control the herd of drones she has created for herself. Drones are her crowd of friends. On the top of the glass bubble there’s Tank Girl -like hair. Tank Girl is her idol.
Cyber Bullying
This suit is a samurai inspired suit. The peaceful warrior symbolism and ideology is close to the kid’s heart. The shapes of the suit and the clothing is from samurai armors.
The multiple eyes on the suit represent the need to see and to be seen. Cyber bullying can be very anonymous and faceless type of bullying. This suit lets the person see the bullies and get to the root of the problem.
Physical Bullying
This suit is for a character who needs to stand up agains physical bullying. This imaginary kid is into brutalist architecture and big machines. He’s pretty tall himself. Despite his physical appearance he has encountered physical bullying. This suit helps him defend himself. The armor is like a large building or a tower with feet of steel, a bit like Colossus from Marvel comics. This exo suit can also just be still.
Verbal Bullying
This kid likes american cars and is into hot rod -culture. Something that's not a common thing to like as a teenager. Name-calling has been a problem for him. It has left long-lasting deep emotional scars on his psyche. He loves rock music but is unable to attend concerts bbecause of hearing loss. He has a hearing aid. In his exo-suit there are parts of american cars from 1960's and concept cars from 1970's to 1990's.
Prejudicial Bullying (Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation)
The cat exo suit is for a character that is loud and happy. She tries not to care about the bullying, but it's hard since she is quite a visible character. She is friendly, but often is faced with racially charged bullying. She has even faced hate crimes.
Visual depictions of the exo-suits. The drawings are A1 size.
Here are characters.
Photos by Nika Kramer