Tolu Adeniji is an interdisciplinary artist born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Chicago. They studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they explored the Film/Video/New Media department, Sound Practices, and Art and Technology Studies. Tolu’s practice navigates the fluidity of identity through the intersections of queerness, blackness, and gender non-conformity. Through sound, film, and computational media, they reflect on the tension between internal experiences and external perceptions, exploring how society defines and limits identity. Their work challenges these structures, embracing the discomfort that arises when identities slip through rigid definitions. By using anxiety and unease as tools for deeper exploration, Tolu creates immersive art that speaks to the complexities of race, gender, and resistance. Their work invites a visceral, universal conversation about navigating an unpredictable world while asserting the freedom to evolve and express the self.
My work explores the complexities of identity, where queerness, blackness, and gender non-conformity intersect. Through sound, film, and computational media, I create spaces that probe the tension between how we are perceived by the world and how we experience ourselves. These tensions between external perceptions and internal realities serve as a source of both discomfort and discovery in my practice. My work investigates how systems of power shape these perceptions, often distorting or misreading those who exist outside the prescribed binaries of gender and race.
At the heart of my practice is a fascination with the ways in which identities are fluid and continually evolving. I am drawn to the potential for art to act as a vessel for both personal exploration and societal critique, where anxiety and uncertainty become raw materials for understanding. As someone who is perceived biologically as a woman but presents as masc and gender non-conforming, I am constantly navigating a world that attempts to define me by rigid societal standards. My work reflects this navigation, not as a passive experience, but as an active process of self-definition in a world that demands fixed categories.
In exploring these themes, I use sound and computational media to capture the unsettling qualities of existing in such spaces of flux. Sound, in particular, is a primary tool in my practice, where I aim to create immersive environments that evoke a visceral sense of unease, reflecting the discomfort of being misperceived, misunderstood, or out of place. Sound’s ability to alter space and time allows me to aurally embody the complexities of existence, creating a tension between presence and absence, certainty and ambiguity. Through film and computational art, I extend this exploration, using time-based media to deconstruct and reconstruct experiences of identity. The shifting nature of these mediums mirrors the fluidity of the self that I seek to express where nothing is fixed, and everything is in a state of transformation.
In addition to these personal explorations, I am increasingly drawn to how these themes resonate within broader societal contexts. I believe that the anxiety and unease I explore are not unique to my own experience but reflect a collective condition, a shared dissonance in a world marked by inequality, uncertainty, and shifting cultural landscapes. My work speaks to a universal struggle with identity, one that transcends the individual and touches on the larger social forces that shape how we see each other and ourselves.
The intersections of race, gender, and power are central to this inquiry. As a black, gender non-conforming individual, I am acutely aware of how societal structures often reduce complex identities to simplistic categories. This reduction not only reinforces systems of control but also erases the richness of our lived experiences. In my work, I seek to challenge these structures by creating a space for the multiplicity of identity to exist freely. Through experimentation with different forms and media, I aim to present an alternative vision, one that embraces fluidity, ambiguity, and complexity.
Ultimately, my work is a reflection on the nature of existence itself: how we grapple with who we are in a world that constantly demands us to define ourselves, often on terms that are not our own. It is about questioning the boundaries that society has imposed and finding new ways to engage with the unknown. In this way, I see my practice as a constant negotiation an exploration of how art can be a site of resistance, reflection, and self-discovery in a world that is ever-changing, often uncomfortable, but always alive with possibility.