Child's play

Firpal Jawanda’s work has appeared on Skims tank tops, in cookbooks and been used for Palestinian fundraisers. Now their most ambitious work is a grudge against colonialism.Photographed by NOORUNISA

- ARMAN KHAN

In Firpal Jawanda’s upcoming untitled sci-fi comic book, every character is a messed-up queer individual living in a futuristic gay underworld. Imagine a place where the pings of dating apps are ambient noise, every party is a hedonistic jamboree and anti-establishment graffiti adorns public bathroom stalls. In one corner, a drag queen remixes a ’90s Bollywood song. Elsewhere, life-sized neon holograms of Lady Gaga and Troye Sivan slow dance. In the British Indian artist’s world, things are different. “This is a space where people who want to feel free and hide from the world live,” says the artist of the fantastical South Asian city they have carved out on the edge of the universe. The 80-year-old protagonist of their biggest illustrative work to date meets disgruntled gay bar owners and gets hit on by a woman in a sauna “who doesn’t care that she is 80. At one point, someone misgenders her and calls her a dirty old man”.

For the 29-year-old non-binary artist, subjecting their protagonist to the frustrations of being misgendered was a reflection of their own experience. “Every queer person I know, including me, finds a place in this book. A lot of times when I’m writing characters who are talking to each other, I try to mix in the wisdom that queer people have with their absolute, feral impulsivity.” It’s an accurate reflection of our present world where ageist, fat-shaming comments can come from that man on Grindr who you're thirsting after; the same man who, despite fat-shaming you, still desires you. In their works, Jawanda probes these dualities, pulling references from Indian mythology and blending them with the eccentricities that define humans.