Disco Divinitas is an exhibition featuring photographic prints, suspended acrylic sculptures, and projected imagery to illuminate unconventional spirituality expressed through queer nightlife. Nightlife - especially queer nightlife - is often perceived as secular, hedonistic, and contradictory to many Western forms of spirituality. As a queer individual raised in a religious Catholic tradition, the masses of my childhood and adolescence were solemn, reverent, and peaceful. Although nightlife initially appears to stand in stark contrast to these experiences, I find unexpected resonance between the two environments. Both spaces invite community and feature orchestrated, ritualistic displays of light, music, and fervor to generate moments of immersive transcendence. By highlighting these parallels, I seek to elevate symbols of nightlife from the secular to the pseudo-religious to evoke an unconventional reverence.

The title stems from a purposeful misuse of the Latin words “disco”, meaning “I learn” and “divinitas”, meaning divinity, godlike nature, or divine power. Though the name of the musical genre “disco” does not stem from this Latin word (rather, a derivative of “discus”, meaning disc) within the thematics of the show, the title alludes to the musical genre and the learning of divinity. In my eyes, nightlife functions as a form of communal pseudo-worship, with ritualistic aspects such as gathering, performative dress, and commemoration.The photographs within the works are solely taken within these spaces and their surroundings, with the spiritual aspect coming from my relation to the subjects themselves, with repetitive ritual, transcendence, and immersion standing out as primary similarities. 

The pieces I create show reverence and deference to these spaces, ultimately transforming the gallery space into a whirlwind of multifaceted moments frozen in photograph and light. This show stands as an act of reverence, allowing unconventional divinity to shimmer through the residue of celebration.Within such a tumultuous time as the ones as of this exhibition, I hope to inspire a reverent appreciation for overlooked and unorthodox ways of spiritual practice based on the ideas of mortality, celebration of life, and transient existence within surrounding environments.