There’s A Star For Everyone

April 07, 2022

Think back to when you were a child: imagination came without boundaries. The urge to let your mind soar aimlessly to greater dimensions and move intrinsically to greater sights became addictive amongst your day-to-day monotonous tasks. And as a child, all you could do is call out to your imagination to ease the itch of everyday life— the characters you met, the places you went and the abilities you have are all a part of a greater fantastical picture from your subconscious. The unimaginable possibilities that ensue in the ether of this reality come into fruition when there are no bounds, anchors, or outside sources shedding light on the harsh systems in place to tear down your vision. This reality—one that is mythical and flourishes without limitations —is one that the artist Danny Cole thrives in.

Text by TIANA RANDALL
Interview by ZACK BIA
Photography by JACOB TRAN
Styling by SEBASTIAN JEAN
Set Design by EVA REESE
Production by TALIA GARG
Styling assisting by DYLAN ANDREWS

Danny Cole, who lives his life mostly as a partner, son, brother and friend to many, also shares the coveted role of being a highly disciplined and multi-talented artist. The self-taught creator was scribbling on school tests before committing to the studio where he could draw up a microcosm of his wildest dreams that he had been visiting since he was in preschool —a colorful universe he’s titled The Creature World. The artist who strives to actualize his imagination has successfully done what many have thought of pursuing—making your thoughts into an intangible reality for all, to be experienced through sensorial affection and interaction. A community, as he might put it. Across his oeuvre, Cole paints creatures from his own world, figures that are abstract and unstructured in shape, carry energy in their size, and are vibrant in color and pattern. His body of work remains staggering, child-like in mind, but intricate on paper.

With early success in art performance and gallery showings, he's also translated this world digitally, most recently in the space of NFTs. Unlike most, The Creature World creator sees Web3 as a means of servicing humanity, as he is not motivated by the attention—or money—but roused by the idea of creating change for the better. As we've seen the world fall apart during the pandemic, the glue that has held together communities has been a voice in the act of art. So, when COVID hit, it silenced the voices of many and Danny found partners in Jacob Tran and Jake McEvoy, the co-founders of Creature World NFT, and has since been able to grow a legacy in limitless exploration. Through Danny’s sheer courage to “look through the door” of life and create a path for himself, he has been able to uncover what’s behind the entrance, and leave the door cracked for whoever else wants to travel with him.

Shorts SUPREME, sunglasses NIKE

So, we’re doing this for office Magazine.

Yeah, to me, the great honor would be to see the Creature on the cover, because the Creature’s like… Such a symbol of the place that I want to take everyone to, but it’ also –

World-building.

Yeah, exactly. But I do understand that people connect to people, and at this point in my life, I am going to have to go out there and be a representative for what I love.

It's funny because you're almost a character that represents the Creature, as opposed to the other way around. It's almost like the Creature is the person. Instead of like, Oh, this is Danny, this is his thing, it's like, This is the thing, and this is the thing's person.

Yeah, exactly. In an ideal world for me, I would love to be able to send the Creature out into the world and just get to be one of the people that experiences it.

Is there ever a way in which you just interact with the Creature in a way you didn't control it? Almost like a bystander?

Well, I guess I think a cool starting point is like, Let's have our little dictionary. Let's align on what even is it that we're talking about. So, right now, my name is Danny and I'm in Los Angeles. I just turned 22. I remember making my first few paintings in my room. I’ve been drawing pictures my whole life. I was dreaming. Every kid has their imaginary friends, their imaginary world.

There's going to be a character that they always go to.

Yeah, people bring themselves to their happy place. But the first time I made a painting, I was 17—

Can we backtrack? Because I don't think you're doing yourself justice by starting there. When you came to visit me the last time you were in LA, you were telling me about your childhood and the place you grew up in. And I think that speaks to your creation of this world. So, let’s start from the beginning.

Well, the start of Creature World, to me—actually the start of life to me—is when I was in preschool. I would climb into bed at night and I would take my blanket and kick my feet up so the blanket would go under my feet. Then, I'd take the blanket and wrap it all around me, so I was in like, a cocoon of my blanket. And I would close my eyes, and the moment my eyes were closed, I would see stars and space all around me. And in space, there would be all of these people and objects and components of my life floating all around. I would look forward to that moment every single day. It was my constant—it was my metronome in life. No matter what happened, I knew I would be back in that place. And it was also a sort of way of processing, and learning, and understanding, like, What is life? You're so young and you're just a sponge. You're trying to figure out the world, and I would be there just floating in space. Then I would see an object, a person, a place—whatever—and something would call to me. And I would just zoom into that. At some point in whatever journey or adventure I would be on, I'd fall asleep. I'd wake up the next morning, but I'd remember where I went that night. It was this feeling that I became super, super familiar with. Life goes on and not everything is rainbows. You start to open your eyes to the world that people are telling me I live in. But I knew what the world I was living in was before anybody told me. I knew that the world that I was living in was something amazing and—

Miraculous.

Yeah, absolutely. But the more that people try to teach you, they're trying to tell you that all the magic that you knew was real—that you saw was real—that it might be real. And they can prove it to you! It breaks you down.

You're being told from people that are older, from multiple people at a time, that this is what the world is. And you're like, But I've seen it this way. And they're like, No, it's this way. It's almost like they're boxing you in.

Absolutely. I'm a really big believer that, as a society, as a species, we're confused about what we're looking at when we look at the world. We look at the world as this entity that we're observing and that we're pointing our finger at. In doing that, we fail to acknowledge that we're a part of it—that every stomp we make, every ripple that we cause, is deciding what this world is that we're a part of. And with that, if I tell you the world is amazing—that the world is magical—and then I do something magical, there's this ripple of magic that makes its way around the world. The world is one more unit more magical. In the same way, when we try to suffocate it, the world's going to be suffocating.

Of course. The emotions transcend in either direction. What's the town you grew up in? DC—I grew up in this town called Watchung, New Jersey. ZB—How many people live there?

5,000 people.

Wow, 5,000 people… And you're yet so close to the greatest metropolitan city in the world, and it's so isolating this town of 5,000 people.

Absolutely. I'm really grateful, though. Growing up in a small town is really reflective of my mother's parenting, because my mom wanted to shield me from the weight of the world. And to let me jump as high as I could.

Before you had to go see the rest of the world, [she wanted] to let you create your own version of it before you were being told what it is.

Exactly. And for that reason, I didn't realize until I was in fifth grade that other kids had friends. Those other kids had friends that they were going and playing with after school. And as a result, up until that point, I didn't live the experience of growing up lonely because I didn't even know.

You just didn't think of it.

But you know, you wake up. I remember waking up being like, I think I'm scared. And I think that life is not as harmonious. The world might not be as much of a playground as I would hope it would be. The thing that I'm looking to encapsulate by sharing this is—

How you were seeing the world, how that changed, and what led you to create this new one.

Yeah, the process of separation with perfection—divinity you might call it. And I don't say that in a religious way, I just don't think we have better words. When I was 17, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you that being a kid, being in my blankets, going to space mattered to me. I wouldn't have even been able to remember it.

Really?

Yeah because it never stood out as –

Significant?

It was just another thing. I had no reason to go back to that memory. There are things that pop up. I remember I went to a summer camp called Camp Harmony when I was very young.

I went to Camp Harmony!

Are you fucking kidding me?

Yeah, I went to Camp Harmony when I was really young.

Holy shit! I went there and I remember during that time period that I would count all of my steps, and that was very important to me. I was looking for order. I was looking for things to make sense. I would count all of my steps and I would also count my breaths. I was under this impression that to breathe in, you were taking in whatever you were looking at. So, I would only breathe in when looking at things that I loved. If I was looking at something that I didn't like, I would literally hold my breath no matter how long it would take. I feel like we start with this really strong awareness where nobody had to teach us how to live.

Jacket SUPREME, sunglasses NIKE

You said what struck the biggest chord is that your mom allowed you to live in a way where you could create your own world before being told what the world was, in a sense. Those aren’t the exact words you used, but I think you're right. There are so many things we do as humans naturally without being told. So, prior to the people in different parts of the world communicating with each other—even knowing that each other exists—everyone made music, everyone danced, everyone cooked food, everyone started families… They did things that are innately human. Even if the music sounded different, everyone was doing it, because it's human. And it's funny because you're talking about as a kid, when no one's telling you what the world is, you're creating your own version of it in your head. And that might be the purest version of all.

It's the right version.

I think you're on to something because you know, not breathing in what you don't like—that's also, in a simpler way, don't spend time with people or doing things that you don't genuinely love. And that's a great philosophy.

We need that reminder sometimes.

You were definitely intuitive enough as a young kid to tap into energies and feelings and things like that, without even knowing what they were called.

Well, to take it to the journey that led me right here, all that time from childhood up until I was 17… I went to preschool in the basement of this dusty church. It was called Sundance. And that the activities that we got to do were incredible. They had us finger painting. And they put this canvas in front of you, and they gave you some paint. I looked at it and the first thing I drew was myself. Skip forward a few years, I'm drawing the same thing. Only bit by bit it's changing.

It's evolving.

Until at a certain point, it doesn't really look as much like a person. It looks like its own little being that's grown up on a slightly different path than me, but it's adjacent. We're grown up.

It's grown up with you.

It's grown up with me, but it's turned into something else.

But is that character—is the Creature a—continuation of that kid you were? The one who thought the world was the way it was before people told him what it was?

I don't know, I’ll say yeah.

Is the Creature World that world?

I don't know, but at that point in my life, I was drawing these pictures every opportunity I could get. I started as young as I could draw. Then throughout the years, I'm in school, I'm looking around me, I'm not really that happy. Where am I tuning out to? Well, I'm just going to draw a picture. All my notes at school were really just pictures. My tests were pictures. So, I'm drawing this stuff, but I never thought, This is art. I wasn't trying to make art—I was just trying to be okay. But one day when I was 17, I decided that I was going to try to actually make a painting. I wanted to get lost. I was really fucking miserable. I was lonely. Well, I wasn't miserable—if I didn't think beauty was possible, I wouldn't have been like, I'm going to make a painting. But I was hurting. So, I went to this art supply store, and I got a canvas, and I got some paint. I made a picture and I made these three creatures together. I looked at it and I was like, This is pretty cool. I'm going to try this again. So, I got another canvas, got some more paint, and started making these paintings. And as I was making them, I could feel myself getting lighter. I was getting lost in the image. And as I was thinking and giving myself to it, I could see how it was as if my hand was –

Painting itself.

Exactly. And that the curves and strokes had a mind of their own.

Like you weren't even thinking—it was just channeling through. Do you think all of the things that were weighing were just leaving your body?

I think before, I was resisting—resisting in the way that I walked through the world. I was resisting what a natural flow felt like for me. And to actually lean into what felt right, it felt lighter because I didn't have to fight. And as I was getting lighter and lighter, I was sort of entering and dreaming. And while I'm in this state painting, I'm seeing a vision of a dream in my head. And I'm seeing this creature that I'm painting walk up to me and I'm walking back up to it. We look at each other, and my first feeling is, It's nice to meet you. I was so struck by how much I knew this feeling, by how familiar it was to me. And it was this itch where I was like, Where do I know this from? Then it just all came back—being in bed, going in the stars, seeing space. And I was like, I've been here. Like, Whoa, I just randomly reunited with something that was so important to me that I never would've remembered if not for that recognition. It's the same as when people smell something that they haven't smelled in a while.

It awakes memories you didn't even realize you had, or that the memory was even significant.

I believe too that it's very possible, if I were to have taken a different path in life, it would've been another thing that was the important moment that sent me in that direction. But I felt compelled, and was just like, This is where I'm going to go. So, I made that picture and I stepped back from it. And when it was done, I looked at it and I was just like, Where the fuck did this come from?

You're like, I don't even remember painting this.

Yeah, exactly! I was like, I don't even feel like I made this. And then I was like, I'm going to get another bunch of canvases. I'm going to get some more paint so I can do this again. All of a sudden, I'm going to school and I'm not getting in trouble anymore. Before that, I was facing suspension every fucking week. Now, I'm not getting in trouble because I know where I'm going after class.

You have your thing. So, you now have an identity.

Yeah, and I didn't even really care to show anybody at the time. I was just like, I know where I want to go. So, I'm going home and I'm making these paintings and it’s ecstasy. I'm like, Anything I want to be real, I'm going to make it real, because as I'm painting it, I'm going to be there. And it was amazing. But then this feeling starts to come up in my throat, and it's that dread that's never too far behind if you're not running fast enough. And I was like, I have been running away to this place that I love.

Jacket and shorts SUPREME, shoes NEW BALANCE

Yeah, what's the dread?

It doesn't feel real because nobody else is seeing the magic that I'm seeing. Everybody else is having these shared experiences together. And the experience that I love most is one that I don't understand how it can be experienced together. Because I know if anybody else was feeling this and experiencing this, that we would look at each other in our eyes. It would be this crazy moment of like, Did you just see that? Hear that? Feel that? Like, What the fuck? And we would be like, Wow, this is insane. And then we'd go back to it and we'd keep going on this adventure through planets that we're discovering—all these new things with new beings, and life, and infinite possibility. But I was all on my own.

You were constantly battling with doing things on your own. So, the next mission is: how do you create community and shared experiences around this world?

Exactly. I called a dear friend of mine before I came here today, and I was like, ‘I have so many different opinions and things that I might want to talk about. What do you think I should talk about for this with Zack?’ My friend said to me, ‘You’ve got to talk about community. Zack is the epitome of what it means to bring people together and unite them around electricity. That's your biggest shared ground.’ And it's funny, I didn't even have to say it because you arrived there on your own! So, for me, it was like, I have this world that I've been going to. Let's all go there together.

Were you still living in Jersey at the time?

Yeah, I put my stuff in a U-Haul. I remember calling some kid in my neighborhood and I was like, ‘If you help me pack up all my shit into this U-Haul, I'll give you a little painting.’ And we made that trade. So, he helped me load up the U-Haul, and I didn't really know anybody in New York. I knew, like, maybe three people. But the visual in my head was kind of that there's a dark place and you have the opportunity to let there be light. You know, you have the opportunity to build up the bonfire that is keeping you warm, and it's warm enough that it can keep a lot of other people warm if we can just all convene around it. So, I get to New York, and the thing that made me go there was I was like, I want to bring what I'm doing to people. There aren't that many people where I am. I’ve got to go where the people are. Then I got there and I was like, How do I reach out and be like, ‘Hello people?’

Right, like You want to be part of this?

Yeah. So, the first thing I did was, I got a bunch of squeeze bottles of paint, and I just went outside and started putting creatures everywhere. I would put them on the sidewalk because I was nervous when I would go outside, so I would pretty consistently be looking down. And I was like, All these spots on the ground—I'm not the only one that's walking around, looking at the ground. Imagine if everybody that's walking around, looking at the ground, is seeing all these, like fun, whimsical pictures and the creatures could enter their lives in this way. So, I started drawing everywhere. And the craziest thing is, that was the thing that did the most for introducing me to the city above anything else that I've ever done.

How far were you taking these paintings? Where were you drawing?

Wherever. There's so many people to this day, where I'll meet them and they'll be like, ‘You know, this many years ago I saw this little drawing you did on the sidewalk on this exact street. And I remember exactly which one it was and that's how I know you.’

People say that to you?

I heard it this morning!

So, it's having a profound impact.

Well, so my thought was, if I don't believe in this day and age it's realistic to ask people to come to you, to come to the art.

Yeah, you bring it to them.

Yeah, you’ve got to bring it to them. And not just putting it in front of their faces, but also giving them a path to engage—a path to walk down. Like, This is how you can experience the art.

Art is made by anyone for anyone.

Art is the people. I want to make art that is a way to unite all of us in what life should feel like and, as a result, what life will be—that's the superpower.

I want to talk to you about NFTs, but I want to preface with the fact that I wouldn't call you an NFT artist. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. But let's zoom out and look at things from an art history perspective: it's inevitable that digital art will be a part of our history. And we're living in a place where you're amongst a generation of artists that are creating digital art in a way that we didn't even think was possible, and reaching people in a way we didn't think was possible. So, I don’t think you’re an NFT artist, and what I mean by that is: you’re an artist who has multiple mediums of translating your art, the NFT being one of them, which you marry with your original cause—in-person gathering. In a society where we increasingly share our lives online, it only makes sense that the two would come together intrinsically.

I would say that everything ties back to connectivity—to community—for me. And it's not actually necessarily a matter of bringing people together in person. It's a matter of bringing people together.

Like, how can you connect with someone in China or somewhere else around the world?

It's wild. But there's this thing where, like, we associate screens as a degree of separation. So, I think it's really important for us to compensate for that degree by using these phenomenal tools to get even closer together.

Does that make the translation of the art less meaningful? Is that why you have to go the extra mile? I think that what everyone in the WEB3 space is banking on is, the idea that this next generation of consumers is equally as comfortable consuming through a screen as they are in person—by virtue of COVID, and just by virtue of exposure from a younger age. Like, you told me that you were one of the first kids in your town where everything you'd consume was on the internet—that's 10 times as true for a kid born today! Does that degree of separation get increasingly minimal?

But is it not a degree of separation because this is just life? I got a metaphor for you: [Rapper] Yeat and the people that score a Disney movie are both making music. They’re still very different things, you know? So, the things that I give my attention to in regard to NFTs are, how is this technology going to service the things that I care about? Bringing people together, immersing us into joy, into the best things in life. And those things are not actually what’s most popular in the NFT space. As a result, I'm relatively critical of the space, but that's not going to stop me from saying that I see it as a tool I can use to make something I think is a product worth engaging with.

It's like people use electricity to build homes and people use electricity to build weapons.

It is. The simplest way to put it for someone who knows nothing about this tech is: you own things in the real world. Well, now, you can own things digitally. It is very simply the enabling of possession on a screen of trustless possession.

Of traced, cemented, unbiased possession. The same way you have registration for a car that shows, This car is mine.

But it's more. It's way more. The idea that the best we can do is just that this tech can function as a COA—a certificate of authenticity—it's like, No, no, no. There are plenty of things that we engage with where we engage with them differently because we possess them. And I almost find ourselves veering away from the word ownership and towards possession, because in my head, when I think about ownership, I'm thinking a lot more about a financial aspect to that. It's emotional. But also quite literally, there are products that I engage with differently because they're mine. So, an example of what I built with the first Creature World collection: we were like, We're going to make a collection of artworks where a shit ton of people will be able to have their very own creature. A creature that only looks like this and it's yours. That was a really exciting idea to me. And because of the pioneers that paved the way for us, we were able to do that—both on the side of who invented all this technology, and also on the side of the people, the consumers.

Yeah, the marketplace that has been created by both sellers and consumers.

Exactly. So, the first thing that we sought to do was to make artwork that is able to be really uniquely personal to people—that is able to be really uniquely personal to more people than we've ever been able to do. I'm always coming at art from this perspective of like, How do you experience art and how can we make it so you are able to experience art even more? And the fact of the matter is, when we're starting with art on a screen—and maybe this is not going to be the same for future generations, or for kids now—but for me, if something's on a screen, there is a slightly greater degree of separation. So, it's like, I want to make something that you are going to be able to experience more, not less.

Right, like, How do I go above and beyond?

The box has gotten bigger in terms of what you are able to create when you're talking about what is, and if my limitation is the physics of the physical world versus of what you can create virtually, there's still a box, but it's gotten a lot bigger. So, the first thing that I wanted to do with Creature World was—I was like, When you make a painting, what is the goal of a painting? The goal of a painting is that somebody will see the painting and then go there, go to that place inside of the painting mentally. And I was like, Well, how can I assist them in the ability to do that?

“I'm always coming at art from this perspective of like, How do you experience art and how can we make it so you are able to experience art even more?”

Immersion.

Right, and I was like, What if I could actually just allow them to go into the painting? Because it doesn't have to follow the physics of the physical world. So, what we made was all these art pieces where you were actually able to go into the world inside of your art piece. We made multiple virtual immersive worlds, where with this art piece, you would be able to enter into a world inside of your art piece and find yourself in this other world. And you can explore that other world—there is an adventure ready for you to go on. When you climb out of that world, whatever you did there—whatever you did inside of your artwork—is now a part of your artwork. It's been added. So, what you're going to get out of it is really what you project onto it. When somebody goes to a painting of mine and they say, I know what this is! it's like you've actually learned something about yourself. The hypothesis I'm operating from is that the more we learn about ourselves, the easier it is for us to connect with each other. So, how do we aid people in going on these introspective journeys while simultaneously uniting them together? That’s what we’re trying to do. There’s a very interesting thing about this new world of digital goods which is, like I spoke about earlier, that we're sort of spoiled in this day and age and shaped to expect the things that we engage with to really cater to us and come to us. In this world, and in the world of NFTs, a transaction is very different. Like, I sell you a painting, Zack. I say, ‘I'm going to give you this painting. You give me a hundred dollars,’ and I hand you the painting, you give me a hundred dollars. But in the digital world, it’s like, you buy this thing from me, I give you what you have purchased, and then you look me dead in my eyes and you say, Now, what are you going to give me? And the answer cannot be just the art. The answer cannot be just what I told you I was going to give you.

Yeah, because when I buy you a painting, it doesn't give me access to a live event.

So, I personally dislike that idea—there’s this hot, hot thing in all these products where people are always like, Utility, utility, this thing has utility.

You know why? It's because it's a quick money play and everything's been commodified. We're living in the most over commodified time in history, where watches are four times the price, cars are three times the price—things that have historically lost value almost immediately after purchase are now twice as valuable, because of shortages, because of trends, because of business opportunities. So, everyone's competing in this hyper-competitive space, where WEB3 is not nearly as big as it's going to be. But the consumers that are in it now are like, How do we cater to this community of people that are willing to spend money on this? And they're all undercutting each other with, like, How do we add more value to this image?

It's not a long term vision.

Of course not. It's very short term, and that's also what's given the space a bad rep.

Oh totally. The space does have a bad rep, and it deserves to—like, aggressively deserves to. But there's also a lot of amazing things.

Of course. That's what's allowed people who have had seemingly no platform or prior access to bring pieces of themselves to the world overnight.

One-hundred percent. But so the idea of like, Well, what is this thing that I own going to do for me? I think a lot of this question comes from a place of confusion. It’s like, Okay, I got this art piece now. But literally everybody else can view it, and they're viewing it identically to how I'm viewing it. With art, you're supposed to view it. So people are thinking, like, What's actually happening for me? And a lot of people have come with these early answers of, Well, this is actually your access token—it's really this other thing. And it's like, if this is a key to a club, if this is a key to a festival, why does it even need to be art? If I'm making art, I want that art to be the key to the art. I want you to possess that art to allow you to engage with it, to experience it more, because it's yours. So, I've been building so many new ways of engaging with my work, and it's really fun to be doing it in a lot of these digital ways, because it's so exciting. It's new. It’s shit that's never been able to exist before.

Culture

The Cost of Queendom

December 17, 2024

One summer afternoon in New York, a few days after their New York premiere of the acclaimed documentary Queendom, office met up with documentary filmmaker Agniia Galdanova and producer Igor Myakotin at a tattoo parlor on the west side of Manhattan. While Agniia received a tattoo of the portmanteau “DOCU CUNT” across her fists, she — unfazed by the needle on her knuckles — answered our questions alongside Igor about the making of the stirring story that has traveled around the world.

One of the opening scenes of Queendom depicts a ritual many of us are all too familiar with in the 21st century. Jenna Marvin, the documentary film’s central subject, takes her friend along with her to take photos for Instagram. When she finds a suitable backdrop, she poses, poses, poses, and then reviews the photos. Dissatisfied, she gives her notes, and then returns to pose, pose, pose again.

By Brook Aster
Photos by Liv Solomon

The ritual may be familiar, but nothing else about the scene — from its setting to its stakes — is ordinary. The backdrop behind Jenna is a sweeping expanse of ice and snow in a small Russian port town called Magadan. Jenna is dressed in drag, but not drag of the Rupaul’s Drag Race variety; her drag has been referred to as “creature drag.” Her signature white face paint, platform heels and surrealist costumes, with their exaggerated sculptural proportions and use of duct tape and repurposed items, catches the ire of her neighbors and the love of online admirers alike. Jenna eventually accrued a following on social media for her public and technically illegal drag performances, which often involved little more than her walking or being in public spaces but nevertheless were often met with abuse and threats of imprisonment.

But when Agniia first encountered Jenna, she hadn’t yet reached the level of virality that would eventually come in the years to follow. The filmmaker was researching different drag performers in Russia for her sophomore project, which she thought would be a docuseries, when she heard from a friend about a young drag queen from Magadan. “I was like, this is impossible. I have to meet this person,” Agniia remembers. “And I could not actually go meet her because I was in Moscow and she was in Saint Petersburg, so I sent a friend of mine with whom I’d been studying with in film school, and she went and filmed the sample.” The simple video, showing Jenna and her friend getting dressed up for a party, struck something in Agniia. The drag was an earlier, more prototypical version of the style Jenna is now known for; less duct tape and ornamentation, but still that signature striking makeup. “Something sparked. I knew I just had to stick to this feeling,” Agniia says. She decided to turn the docuseries into a documentary solely focused on Jenna.

Around that time, the entire world came to a grinding halt: the onset of COVID-19 pandemic had just led to lockdowns around the globe. With only a couple thousand followers on social media at that point in time, Jenna had tried to branch out and connect with other drag artists in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but faced rejection; her drag was extremely unconventional, and not even other drag artists quite understood it. “I think we found each other at the right moment, because nobody knew what to do, how to cope with all this,” Agniia says. “Jenna was saying that she was lost, and she also didn't know how to develop her art next.”

Unlike some of the other artists Agniia had initially researched, Jenna didn’t need much convincing to allow the camera into her life. “[Especially] after COVID came, there wasn't really [any] drag in my life,” Jenna recounts when I speak to her later over Zoom. “I realized that what drag is for me is not just a costume, a dress, something that you leave, that you take off and then in the dead of the night you put back on. Later, I understood that this is who I am, that I am art and I am drag, and that this is way bigger and more important than just clothing or costume.”

[LEFT TO RIGHT: Agniia Galdanova, Jenna Marvin, Igor Myakotin]

When it came time to move into production stages, Agniia sent a clip to Igor, who had been referred to her by a past colleague. When Igor saw the footage, he was similarly struck by Jenna — and even more struck to find out she shared his small hometown of Magadan. “It was just so fateful to know that I also come from this town, and I've never seen it through this cinematic lens, through the vision that Agniia has,” he says. “I was mesmerized by the footage, mesmerized by Jenna. I thought to myself, I have to do everything I can [for us] to work together, whatever the collaboration is gonna be.”

The two followed Jenna for over three years; Agniia first relocated to St. Petersburg, where Jenna had taken up residence after leaving her grandparents’ home in Magadan, and later Jenna moved in with Agniia in her home in Moscow. All the while, Igor and his team worked remotely from the United States to meet Agniia’s production needs. Inevitably, with all their time spent together, Agniia and Jenna became close.

“There is an unspoken rule in documentary filmmaking that you have to keep this line, and you can’t overcome certain boundaries,” Agniia explains. “In my first film, it was not an easy subject [to do this with] as well. I was following a family for seven months, and [we became] close, but I always was trying to keep my distance, and was constantly thinking about it. How much should I say? How much should I give?” But as she got to know Jenna, it became clear that this time, that distance wouldn’t be possible. “With Jenna almost from the very beginning, I was like, fuck it. That’s not going to work with this one. I'm going to break this rule 100%. I never regretted it, because that's actually what built up the trust that is there.”

As Jenna's public performances continued and began to garner more public attention, her online audience multiplied. Among her virtual admirers was French fashion maven Michèle Lamy, who would eventually sign onto Queendom as an executive producer. Lamy's discovery of Jenna led to an invitation to walk in the Rick Owens show in Paris — her first time modeling, and her first time leaving Russia in her life. Of course, Agniia and her camera followed. But most of their excursions were not so glamorous; many of Jenna's performances shown in the documentary were undertaken at a real risk to her physical safety, and by extension, to the safety of Agniia. But neither of them were daunted.

I remember who I am. And this is what carries me through this life.

After all, Jenna was used to both taking risks and documenting them well before she was the subject of a film; she and her friends long filmed the often impassioned, sometimes violent reactions of strangers and policemen to their mere existence in public spaces in drag. And after a protest performance in which she wrapped herself in the Russian flag, Jenna was kicked out of beauty school, her last attempt at a practical route before pursuing her drag as a full time venture.

The only time Agniia tried to dissuade her was on Paratrooper’s Day, a Russian military holiday often characterized by the drunk soldiers roaming the streets. The risk for violence was especially high. “On Paratroopers Day, people say you can't come out in skinny jeans or with nail polish,” Jenna describes. “[I think] you should do the opposite. You should really make a statement and come out wearing what you want to wear. I think that clothes, what we wear, is really at some point beyond our psyche, our mind, our understanding. It is as if it's a certain kind of spice that is enticing you and you follow the scent of that spice and you don't see anything else except that scent and you follow it. That's how I see it.”

“I was like, ‘girl, maybe we should not do that,’” Agniia says. “Igor was stressing out and she told us, ‘well, you don't need to follow me. I'm gonna go and do it. I don't care if you're coming or not.’” In the end, Jenna ventured out for her performance anyway, protesting the then-recent invasion of Ukraine. Agniia followed. Not shown in the film is that the two were arrested, and managed to talk the police out of their arrest.

Not too long after, she would have to leave Russia again, this time moving for Paris for good; the film follows her struggles to get a visa in time to leave the country after the onset of the war. “It's already been three years that I've been in France, and it is important for me to understand and remember who I am, and to remember that pain, those moments when we were back in Russia doing drag, fighting with the police and law enforcement,” Jenna says. “It is important that this resistance continues and that those voices are not being silenced. Yes, here there’s much more freedom, there are pride parades and queer people can get married, but this is an illusion because there are also places where you cannot get married and you cannot enjoy the same freedoms. I cling to who I am, who I was from the very beginning. I remember who I am. And this is what carries me through this life.”

“Meeting Jenna gave me hope for the future of the country, because governments come and go, people in power come and go, but the generations change at the same time,” Igor says. “So it warms my heart to see that someone like her came from somewhere like that. If I saw her back then at a similar age, it would be even more personal. I think I would’ve accepted myself as gay quicker, and I wouldn't be nervous or closed and not open to the world or myself… Working with this project also meant that we were amplifying the voices of many, many people who couldn't speak like Jenna could.”

For Agniia, the honor of telling Jenna's story is only paralleled by the honor of having her in her life. “We found each other,” Agniia says. “And what I learned from Jenna is so precious; about life, about art, about surviving. And I appreciate it a lot. This film grew so much larger than just a documentary, because I have a family now, a working family.”

Queendom is now available to stream on Apple TV.

Culture

The Fears and Futures of Snow Strippers' Hardcore (And Hardly-Of-Age) Fanbase

December 09, 2024

It’s 6:00 PM and the queue for Snow Strippers has already amassed and wrapped its way around Kentish Town. An army of Racer Worldwide bomber-clad teens have taken over, all united by what Snow Strippers’ electroclash mayhem has to offer against their shared uncertainty towards the future.

Is it 2024 or 2014? The moodboard is quite literally my 13-year-old Tumblr page, accessorized with Balenciaga-esque black-out sunnies and hair clips galore. Pink hair, red hair, blue hair, black hair with bleach streaks a-la-Y2K. We spot our first Snow Strippers Dad - a balding man in a long evening coat accompanying two girls in bedazzled, fur-lined bombers. Not too sure he knows what he’s in for.

Not sure that we did either.

The doors haven’t even opened and yet it’s very clear that tonight is more than just about the music. It’s a social setting, and rocking up solo is no issue.

Introduction Gabriella Fittes
Interview Liv Solomon
Photography Mathilde Favel

We didn’t expect our questions to be answered by a demographic made up of a majority of 16-21 year olds. But the post-covid generation had a lot to share on the serious topics – and it seems to be all about escape. Dancing to escape a future in a world they are disillusioned by, against the political state and cuts to arts funding - and they haven’t even left school yet. We met a community bizarrely made up of Aries and Pisces zodiac signs, looking for a release in the electronic chaos of the dancefloor - soundtracked by Snow Strippers.

We came to find out what brought them here. Is it really that deep or just a bit of fun? People are coming out, and we want to know how they’re feeling, and where Snow Strippers’ emerging popularity fits into all of this. Are Snow Strippers an anchor to reality or an outlet to escape?

Mazzy, 21, Portland, Oregon

What brought you to London?

Dude I don’t even know - I’m supposed to go on this study abroad program. My options were either Milan or Australia but I don’t fuck with the bugs out there. And I don’t speak Italian so like… it’s London.

What’s your zodiac sign?

My zodiac sign? Crazy ask! Virgo.

What do you do for work?

I was in an internship last semester, train design. I would design trains in Antwerp and the Netherlands

What do you do for fun?

Girl! Girl I don’t know… I scroll on Instagram. I watch YouTube videos. That’s kind of it.

Who’s gonna save the world?

…Me!?

Y2K or 2010s?

2010s

Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Blue pill

Tati or Graham?

Tati.

Thoughts on AI?

Errrr no. Not yet, no.

Do you dance to escape?

Yes

What do you listen to before bed?

3 hour reddit stories (laughing)

Movie of the year?

Anora. It’s amazing

Grace, 16, Cambridge, Aries

Gaby, 17, Cambridge, Sagittarius

Summer, 18

Rosie, 18, Hertfordshire

(l-r)

What brought you here tonight?

Summer beckons to Grace - It was her. Literally her!

Grace - So I said to Summer, please will you come with me to see Snow Strippers

Summer - *beckons to Gaby and Rosie* And these are our plus ones

When did you guys get into Snow Strippers?

Summer - Mine’s only been a few months to be fair, maybe like 6 months

Grace - Probably like 8, 9 months

Kim, 19, Aries, London

Juliana, 17, Cancer, London

(l-r)

What do you do for work?

Juliana - She goes to college, and I just work. I work as an admin in an office.

What do you do for fun?

Juliana - I go to concerts, I like raving.

Would you say you dance to escape or to be a part of something?

Juliana - I don’t know, I just enjoy it. But sometimes I do it to escape work, boring stuff.

What other events do you go to, like raves?

Juliana - I haven’t been to much because I’m still young and I don't really have friends in the rave scene, so I go to venues like E1. But I usually go to metal gigs. I go to more of that.

Sahana, 17, East London, Guidford, Pisces “can you tell?”

Yasmin, 16, London

(l-r)

What brought you here?

Yasmin - Snowstrippers. I love their music.

Tati or Graham?

Yasmin - Tati

Y2K or 2010s?

Yasmin - It depends if we’re talking about the early 2010s or the late 2010s. I’m thinking 2014 like …. Like that’s… the skinny jeans with the boots over (references her outfit)

Do you dance to escape?

Sahana - I guess I’d say that.

What do you listen to before bed?

Sahana - Fake Mink. I actually do. I love Fake Mink.

Y2K or 2010s?

Sahana - 2010s. I like the 2010s.

What part of the 2010s?

Sahana - 2014, 2015.

What brought you here tonight?

Sahana - Fake Mink and Snow Strippers. I love their songs.

What’s your favorite brand?

Sahana - Racer Worldwide.

Yasmin - I don’t really have a favorite brand. I'm not that into shopping.

How do you style yourselves?

Sahana - Brick lane, DEPOP

Yasmin - I like vintage, car boots a lot. Do you know the one in Dalston? I go every weekend! I got this top from there, these jeans, these boots. Literally everything is from there. So cheap as well.

Reuben, 16, London

Tati or Graham?

Can’t lie, Graham. I know that Graham’s behind the production of all the songs and I’m more into the production of the music. And I like Tati’s vocals but I’m more into the beats and shit.

Do you dance to escape or are you dancing for the music itself?

I used to do breakdancing. And I just dance to feel like myself. I feel like moving around and getting the [rhythm] is some way of just expressing yourself and letting yourself be free. I think a lot of people here come to these concerts to enjoy themselves. I’d say there’s a social setting as well. You can see everyone dressing the same and it’s just good… it's like community.

Like a uniform. It’s a separation from the rest of the world.

Sahana - Yes. Some aren’t just coming for the actual artist, they’re coming just to socialize.

Reuben - It’s like [Snow Strippers] know the demographic they attract.

Frida, 18, England

Alex, 17, Greece

Alice, 19, Brazil

(l-r)

Would you travel to space if somebody asked you?

All - Yes.

Are you afraid of AI or do you support it?

Alice - I’m kind of afraid

Alex - I support it because I love Chat GPT

Alice - Yeah, I do all my fucking uni work on Chat GPT

Alex - But my professor doesn’t even care. He loves it [because I do psychology].

Who’s gonna save the world?

Alice - maybe Kamala Harris

Frida - Aliens

Alex - Yes, aliens. I agree with that.

Frida - I think they’d come and just put things right

One last question, would you say you dance to escape or be involved in something?

Alice - I dance for both.

Alex - I just dance for the vibe. You guys are both… your vibe is just UGH.

Colin, 19, Florida

Berkeley, 18, Florida

(l-r)

Does AI scare you?

Colin - OH SHIT

Berkeley - I’d say to a certain extent as far as creativity

The Lolas, 18, Twickenham,

Virgo (left) / Aries (right)

What are your names?

Both - Lola. We’re Lola. We’re both Lola.

What is your zodiac sign?

LV - Virgo.

LA - Aries.

(To Mathilde) Let’s get a photo of them together

LV - Yeah, because it’s the Lolas. Do you know what I mean?

LA - We are the Lola’s.

Space travel: yes or no?

LV - Yes.

LA - It’s just too much. Too much.

Does AI scare you?

Both - Yeees! Yes.

LV - I hate robots.

LA - Especially for artists. We both do art. AI is gonna ruin the industry.

LV - Even when I was looking at unis I was looking at Plymouth. And basically, they said that they’re taking AI as art. Like, degree-level pieces.

LA - Yeah Yeah! They’re accepting it as final pieces.

Do you think the current technological state is affecting art and media?

LV - Yes 100%. It’s changing every day. All of it’s advancements, I don’t think it’s a good thing. I think everyone should stay organic to just what we can create as humans.

LA - I think it’s good in essays, and in medical care. I’m glad we’ve got those advancements.

LV - I think in the art industry it doesn’t help.

LA - I wanna work in the film industry and that’s like, I’m against that. I would never watch an AI movie.

Do you dance to escape?

Both - Yeahhhhhh!

LV - It’s an escape from reality

LA - I love a dance.

What was the most recent nightmare you had?

LV - Oo I feel like we can find a conjoined… (looking at each other like they’re telepathically attempting to recall a shared dream)

LA - My aunt beat me up (giggling). That was my nightmare.

LV - A real-life nightmare! I don't know… last night I had a dream that I was throwing up and then I actually felt like I was gonna throw up, so that was a pretty recent nightmare.

LA - It was like a manifestation.

LV - I was just a bit hungover really.

Vicky, 20, Poland, Taurus

Cindy, 21, Korea, Libra

(l-r)

What brought you here tonight?

Both - Snow Strippers!

Cindy - We just met!

How long have you two been fans?

Vicky - I’d say 2 years. A while.

Cindy - I think similar.

Vicky - I’m really glad I got a ticket because they sold out really fast. Luckily a friend of mine couldn’t make it and then I met Cindy in the queue, and she knows my friend. They were gonna go together and we just bumped into each other.

How has the recession hindered your creativity?

Vicky - I mean it probably has helped in a way, because I feel very distressed. I can’t afford anything, I can't afford to sew and I can’t afford materials to do the things I want to do but at the same time that kind of fuels you wanting to do it more because there are so many barriers stopping me. It feels like there are a lot of people in the creative industry who have nepotism and a lot of financial help from their family and [I] feel a little bit of jealousy with this. Like you can’t do it because you don’t have the facilities that they do.

Do you dance to escape?

Cindy - Oh yeah, actually I do.

What do you escape?

Cindy - I’m an overthinker so I tend to worry about a lot of different things. I feel like when you’re dancing and just dancing to music that you really love, you can kind of forget about the reality sometimes. I sometimes use it as a factor to just run away from something that worries me. And I think it also links to my creativity…

(an ambulance rolls past us so we have to pause the interview)

Ellie,17, Stratford

Joyce, 17, Stratford

(l-r)

What’s your zodiac sign?

Joyce - Ah I don’t even know.

When’s your birthday?

Joyce - June 28th

You’re a cancer, just like me!

Joyce - Aahhh!

Who’s going to save the world?

Joyce - Jesus, God.

Does AI scare you?

Joyce - Actually, it does. I feel like it does.

What do you do?

Joyce - I am a student. Film and TV.

What’s your zodiac sign?

Ellie - I don't do zodiac signs.

At this point, someone from the crowd interrupts Ellie:

Guy - ‘Yo I know you from the Lola’s. Do you know the Lola’s? I know you from the Lola’s… I just spotted you from over there ... You coming to her birthday party?

Ellie - Yeah, are you? *turns back to me* Sorry.

Who’s going to save the world?

Ellie - Jesus

I think we should just end it on that

Ellie and Joyce high five

Nat, 22, Wales, Libra

What brought you here?

Loving their music for so long and loving them honestly

Tati or Graham?

Tati because she’s one of the girls. Goes without saying.

*taking photos* Glasses? No glasses?

Whatever you prefer.

Starts posing, showing us how her outfit matches the baby pink look , holding up the pink glasses…

All of the pink matches. It all matches so it just had to be done!

What’s your zodiac?

I’m a libra… *posing* make sure to get the back

Y2Ks or 2010s?

Oh my god. The hardest question you could have probably ever asked me. But I would have to say 2000s.

Who’s gonna save the world?

Charli XCX.

What do you listen to before bed?

Lana or Frank Ocean

What do you listen to when you wake up?

Snowstrippeeeers!

Movie of the year?

The Substance. Absolutely The Substance.

Are you team Elizabeth or Sue?

I think we're all Sue. No, we’re all Sue but we also have an Elizabeth. You know?

Safe, 17, London, Gemini

Amber, 16, London

Daphne, 17, London

(l-r)

What brought you here?

Safe - Snowstrippers, bro… I love it

Tean Tati or Graham?

Safe - I don’t really have a favorite… *a beat*…Tati

Joanna, 21, Bournemouth, Pisces

Sophia, 22, London, Aries

(l-r)

Culture

Aweng Chuol Cannot Be Boxed In

November 22, 2024

Before she took her first breath, Aweng Chuol’s mother knew that her child would be a rebel. Even with all eyes on her, she has no desire to live through people’s perceptions of her; in fact, it might be physically impossible for her to care about outside judgement.

The first born of a dozen children, Chuol chose a path she felt the universe call her to. One day, while she worked a closing shift at her local McDonald’s, an incantation of all that could be possible played through her mind as a woman handed her a card. “You’re going to be a superstar,” the stranger said to her.

Growing up amidst a war-torn South Sudan, the model and growing multi-hyphenate still loved the place she called home. She still finds that sense of home within the sanctuary of her body, an ability that has allowed her to take massive leaps and risks. At 18 years old, she snuck away to Paris to walk her first runway for Vetements, after which she was signed to agencies in Milan, Paris, and New York. Her unforgettable look and enchanting walk were stamped in all the greatest minds in fashion. She was “it,” and there was no doubt in her mind about it. While this story may sound like a whirlwind fairytale — a refugee one day and a supermodel the next — Chuol’s story is much more complex than that.

Photography Asger Carlsen
Styling Jahulie Elizalde
Talent Aweng Chuol
Interview Kerane Marcellus
Hair Izumi Sato
Makeup Rose Grace
Creative Producer Liv Solomon
Photo Assistant James Lynch
Styling Assistant Rebeca Flores
Production Assistants Rea Brayshaw, Abby Dillingham, Enzo Holdt
Editor-in-Chief Simon Rasmussen
Assoc. Creative Director Mitchell Connell

AWENG wears FULL LOOK by MIISTA

When Chuol immigrated to Australia with her mother and eleven siblings, she reached a newfound consciousness, new obstacles to overcome, and a new life to get used to. Throughout her formative years, she had finally arrived at a point where she could call Sydney, Australia her home. Over time, she found comfort once again in her long legs, high cheekbones, deep skin, and full lips. Everything that led up to that moment had proved to be worth it.

Discovered while she was a student studying law, it was kismet for the powerhouse model to become a household name. “Aweng” is a sacred name, meaning “cow” in her native language, an animal that brings pride to its people. Chuol is bringing pride to all iterations of herself. From her many geographical journeys, to her internal journeys of navigating life, love, and constant change, Aweng Chuol is a woman who cannot be boxed in.

On an early Tuesday morning, right after her meditation session, we spoke about her manifestations, her tenacious spirit, and the oral history that keeps her connected to her culture.

Kerane - I appreciate how you’ve chosen your own narrative outside of what others have chosen for you. How do you stay authentic throughout your ever-growing career?

Aweng - I think it's just having the right source of energy around you. All my friends, my agents, and you know, I'm a first born, I'm a double Libra, so it's like being grounded. It's innate in me because of the way that I was raised and my personal experiences before fashion. I'm not the model that had magazines as a kid. I’m not the model that was watching all these amazing films of Hollywood and like, New York City. I'm from Australia, that's just so out there from where I'm from. So, thinking about the 18 years of life that I got to live before I got into entertainment, definitely helps a lot, to be honest.

How would you describe punk culture and how do you interpret it?

Avril Lavigne is the punk-est culture I know. And when P!NK first came out, she was the epitome of punk in my head.

I like the way you dress yourself, like your personal style is so cool. How does your personal style align with punk culture and your identity?

I think my personal style fluctuates. It has its ebbs and flows. I think it depends on the season that I'm in, like, right now, I’m the hot girl season. So, I’m wearing the Matte brand, I'm wearing Ottolinger, I'm layering, like, and then even my CFDA look, it was the Di Petsa and their whole thing is body, water waves, my stylist added jewelry stacked jewelry. Adding gold, mixing color, mixing jewelry, I think it's my essence. If I'm wearing a hairstyle that's up, and my hands are empty and my legs are bare, then. I like to then layer jewelry on my hands and my ears.

What are some of the most rebellious things you’ve felt you needed to do?

I think my entrance into fashion behind-the-scenes was very rebellious. When I got confirmed for the Vetements show, when I first got discovered, they flew me from Sydney, Australia, literally my hometown, into Paris, and I had told my family that I wanted to go to Paris, and I had a big option in Paris, and, you know, they didn't, they didn't believe that I'm going to Paris to walk one show. Me and my parents kind of got into it, and I just basically sneaked out of the country.

You didn’t put that in your essay for Elle!

No, [laughs]. I literally ended up in Paris. And I was like, “Yeah, I'm in Paris, Mom!” What can you do now across the world, you know? Now you just pray that I get home safely and all of that. When I got home, I think I was grounded for two weeks straight, but then I already had the energy and the touch of traveling. So I was like, “Okay, I'm gonna go again.” And this time, obviously, I told him when I was going back to London.

You were 18 at the time right?

I was at the time in Australia, and you think, oh, you're an adult at 18, but [you know] African cultures.

Right! I also come from an immigrant household. When I turned 18 I thought I could do all these things but my mom was not about it.

Yeah! My mom was not letting me go into Hollywood.

Didn’t your mom say to reach out to that lady who gave you the card?

She didn't think that it would actually bring anything. When you're young, between the age of 16 and 18, I think that's when people tried to scout me for things. So, she didn't 100% think anything was gonna happen but I had another option right before Vetements and it fell through, and then the Vetements option came through.

LEFT: AWENG wears GOWN by C-PLUS SERIES, SHOES by THOM SOLO, RIGHT: AWENG wears TOP and SHORTS by MACCAPANI, BOOTS by LARUICCI

Your coming out story was a huge moment that you shared with the world. How did you come to the decision to let the world in on your personal life?

I think for me, I just did it. I was always the rebellious kid. I was always the black sheep. I was always that kid. My mom knew from a very young age I was gonna test her, like 110%. I was born at 7am in the morning when she was going for her walk. She said, "This child is literally a menace.” So coming out wasn't really coming out. I just bought someone home. I said, “Hey, this is this. Any objections?” I’ve always been a diplomatic kind of person and a justice [oriented] kind of person. One thing I realized, too, is people will get comfortable if you decide whatever you decide on that day. That might be uncomfortable for a while, but they will have to just get comfortable. That's just it, if they're gonna stay in your life.

I related to the way that you wrote about feeling guilty for leaving your family. I’m also first-born from an immigrant household. Does that guilt still come up sometimes or has it subsided?

100% it does. I even had my therapy session yesterday morning. I have therapy every Monday at like 8am and my therapist, an amazing Black woman, by the way; she and I were speaking about the feeling of whether your siblings resent you for doing life in a way without them being fully involved. My siblings, they're all in Australia. Australia is not like Miami or Los Angeles or New York. It's 25 hours, and that's on a good day. I can't really get up and leave when I'm trying to build an empire or a career, or longevity in my career here. I have 11 younger siblings, so I watched a lot of them be born, and then now graduating. So the guilt never really goes away, but I've just learned that we're all individuals in this life, and we all have paths that we have to follow. It's obviously ultimate love and unconditional love.There'll be a point where I'll be able to go there, or they'll be able to come here and stay for a bit longer. I think it's growing pains, that's the thing about siblingship. There are a lot of growing pains that society doesn't really speak about.

Are you close with your mom as well?

My mom is 15 years my senior. So she and I grew up together. I watched my mom go through her 20s, and now I am going through my 20s, and she's in her 40s. I'm like, I get it. I kind of get why you were wilding out [laughs].

If there was any place you could go at the snap of a finger, where would it be?

I would go to South Sudan, because my grandma is there, and she is the sweetest woman ever. When I go back to Sudan, all she does is wake up and have coffee with ginger and then speak to me about her entire life and her mom's life. She just loves to tell stories. I'm more of a writer, so I don't really have much to say to her. So, that exchange is so intimate between her and I, and she's just my peace. She's literally just my peace, my dad's mother. Then another choice, selfishly speaking, Hawaii, I've never been, but I just think about being under coconuts. and Bretman Rock lives out there, and I feel like he lives such a peaceful life. I would love to just experience that first day, even with the chickens and everything. He's living his best life. That's my favorite manifester, right there. He's amazing.

I love the way that you talk about your grandmother. Passing down oral history is so important.

So important, because libraries get burned down. We know that now. They get removed by politics. So, oral knowledge is so important for the human experience, and culturally, we actually do more oral passing down with my native language. They haven’t started having books on it until recently.

Even those traditional types of things being passed down. I saw a dad practicing haka with his baby.

I think it's so spiritual. I saw the haka being done in the New Zealand Parliament. I went to law school, so I love politics. I can talk about politics all day, and I just I cried, because they ripped the paper and then to performed. And being able to be stopped—that's just so powerful. I hope it gets passed the way they wanted to pass it, to be honest.

Oh, wait, did you finish law school? Like you finished?

I didn't get to finish. I have one more year left, and I have two years to decide whether I go back or not. It's just my schedule. I have so much that I want to do in fashion and entertainment, period. It's one of those things. I will go back to school 100%, I want to get multiple degrees. I just want to learn. I think I'll go back, it’s never too late for that.

Definitely, never too late. I don't think it's ever too late to just start over. What type of law did you study?

I did International Relations, majoring in International Policies. So I wanted that to be my ultimate goal. I wanted to be part of the United Nations body for South Sudan. I was 17 when I decided that. I just started working extra hard, getting extra credits, getting in early, and then the universe was like, “You need to go into fashion.” I was like, “Okay, let's go!”

You don't really seem like a person that really cares to present themselves a certain way, I like that you're not really fearful of being perceived. Do you see yourself as a role model like the supermodels that came before you?

For my siblings, I've always been a role model, because I'm the eldest sibling, and I grew up with my mother. I think there were instances in our relationship where she saw me as a role model versus when I saw her as such. I see her as a role model because she's my mother, you know. I definitely do think I'm a role model. When I walk outside, kids, teenagers, people in the industry, or my peers come up to me and I'm like, “Thank you.” I know I'm being perceived. I am careful with some things, but in essence, I'm just a Aweng. and a Aweng is busy doing this, or Aweng just did this cover, or this campaign.There's perception there, but I think in being a role model, I just try to kind of make sure anyone that's watching me knows that the world's a mess but we're gonna be okay and to be kind.

AWENG wears DRESS by TAOTTAO, BOOTS By THOM SOLO

Going back to the Vetements runway, you said that you felt already at home in your essay for Elle. Are you at home in your body anywhere you go?

I think being a former refugee, you kind of have to find homes then and there. Wherever feels safe, where there's a roof over your head, that's home. I’m a girl growing up on an island in Australia, in a different society. My grandparents in my mom's home, my step dad's house — I was always moving. So, now that I have my own place and I make my own decisions, the adult autonomy has finally entered the chat. I think it's really in my body, and it's really in where my mind is at and what kind of morning I've had, is what I would say. There are some days where I am just moving for the plot. That's what I'm doing right now, and that's just it. I think it's important to give myself permission, some days, to not have an agenda of where home is right now. You know, sometimes you’re just here to have fun or here for vacation. I kind of detach a little bit, is what I would say, too. I'm always moving. I can't get attached to every hotel room, I can't get attached to every flight seat or airline seat or whatever. So I think it's really the body, I think the way I carry my body, the way I'm moving, the way I speak and the way I carry my tone, I think that's where home is.

Beautiful. So, when you moved to Australia, did you struggle with assimilation?

I think moving to Australia, literally, the moment the plane landed, I was like, “Oh, this is consciousness. I'm here, okay.” We landed in the middle of April. So it was basically summer in Australia. I went into autopilot. I'm learning the language, learning the culture. It was a culture shock and that was just two years of just mindlessness, trying to survive, a mode of fitting in, or getting settled. After that, it was okay. This is home now. It took me a while to call it home. It definitely took a few years to feel safe.

Who’s your favorite upcoming designer at the moment?

Grace Ling. I love her work. She's a sweet, sweet woman, very nice to me, very nice to everyone, and I like the way she moves. She just moves in such light. Like, girl, what's your secret?

Who are some of your favorite models right now?

Anok Yai, of course. Alex Consani, one of my good friends, Awar Odhiang, she's amazing, and she had such a great season. We love, love, love, love, love her.

What advice would you tell your younger self?

Slow down!!! That song by Billy Joel, “Vienna” — play that over and over and over and over and over again for 15 year olds. I was in a rush. And now I’m here and I'm like, “Okay, great! You figured it out, but what was the rush?

Let’s manifest. What does the future hold for you?

I think it holds a lot of peace. I'm trying to get into more philanthropy now. So, I’m working on that behind-the-scenes. Hopefully an acting debut is in the skyline, shortly. And to continue on slaying the girls, and the boys, and the gays.

I like the way that you're so knowledgeable about the fashion that goes on, yes, like within your industry, I feel like sometimes models are just models and they're not really into fashion. They're doing what pays the bills, but I enjoy how you know the names of designers, photographers, stylists.

I think it's important. I think it's important once you're out, you know, what did you get, besides the covers and the campaigns? Did you get the names of the stylists and photographers? Has anyone passed away during your career? Is anyone you wish you had met during your career? That’s important to think about.

What advice would you give to anybody who is interested in becoming a model in today's age?

Do your homework. Find your niche, study what you want to actually do when coming in. You're going to get a lot of “no’s”, but the world is not going to end on a “no.” I feel like a lot of aspiring models, or want-to-be models get really taken aback when they get their first or second or third “no,” and it discourages them. Entertainment is like any industry, you're going to get “no” from your bosses. You're gonna get “no” from your dream. It happens. So, if you really want to do it, you’re going to need to keep pushing to do the work, because there is work. Being a model is not easy. There is work! Oh, and get your passports, because you do need your passport. I promise you. And enjoy the ride. I think where I'm at right now in my career, I'm really enjoying the ride. I get to aspire for more.