Queer Mother Fucking the Cistem

Queer Mother Fucking the Cistem radically rewrites the visual language of the sacred, embedding queer identity, political defiance, and the aesthetics of nonconformity into its very structure — through the shimmer of holographic foil across flesh, the sharp irreverence of raised middle fingers, and the bold presence of rainbow halos that reclaim, distort, and corrupt traditional iconography. The painting references one of the most iconic religious images in Polish culture — the Black Madonna of Częstochowa — yet it does so not through reverent reproduction, but through deconstruction and direct intervention into the field of symbolic power.

Glitter, UV-reactive paint glowing in the dark, and holographic foil weave into classical painting techniques. These materials are not mere ornament; they fracture the boundary between high art and club culture, between devotional imagery and the aesthetics of drag performance and queer protest. Their shimmering, shifting, elusive presence mirrors the nature of queer identity itself — fluid, defiant of categorisation — much like the holographic foil fracturing light across the figures’ faces, refusing to settle into a single, stable image, constantly morphing under changing conditions.

The iconic composition — Madonna and Child — is brutally reimagined. The rainbow halos directly evoke the public act of the 'Rainbow Madonna', which in 2019 ignited court trials and media attacks targeting the LGBTQIA+ community. The raised middle fingers of both figures are more than provocation; they are a symbol of refusal — resistance to violence, marginalisation, and the cisnormative occupation of religious, political, and symbolic space. This universally recognised gesture, long embedded in protest iconography, connects the figures to a broader tradition of dissent — from queer uprisings to feminist resistance — where defiance is articulated through the body itself.

This work belongs to the lineage of queer iconoclasm — fusing elements borrowed from pop culture, camp aesthetics, and sacred art, reworked from the perspective of bodies historically excluded from spaces of religious representation, artistic canons, and public visibility. In a country where the vast majority is socialised through Catholic doctrine, this painting is also a gesture of cultural reclamation — asserting the right of queer, trans, and non-normative bodies to intervene in, question, and rewrite the visual narratives they were raised within. Queer Mother Fucking the Cis Systemoffers no reconciliation — it is a declaration of defiance, political urgency, and embodied resistance. It asks for no permission. It demands visibility.

It tells a story of sanctity that glitters with sequins, glows under ultraviolet light, provokes, and destabilises. It is a sacrum no longer reserved for cis bodies, no longer a tool of exclusion. Here, the sacred is queer, shameless, built from defiance, flesh, and light — light that reveals itself only in darkness, much like the UV-reactive pigments woven into the work, glowing defiantly when the world expects obscurity.