H.E-X STUDIOS

The last several decades of social change across the world have questioned the roles and definitions of gender, sexuality, and the roles they play in society. And yet, I find the one community that truly pushes that fold is in the cosplay community. In general, women dressing in more masculine clothing has become common in day to day life, but to me there seems to be less opportunities for men to do the inverse. But in cosplay, dressing as characters of the opposite gender is not only normalised but celebrated. Thus, events like conventions can become a safe space for individuals to push and experiment with their identity, something that I've come to appreciate with my own cosplay too. 

In particular, the art norms and conventions in anime and anime-inspired media design many of their characters with a certain androgynous nature compared to more western designs. I feel like it's this particular niche where the boundaries between genders are so blurred that it becomes easier to meld and cross over. 

Both philosophically and artistically, it's these undetermined areas that really fascinate me. Cosplay itself exists on a thin boundary between fiction and reality, photography is a two-dimensional illusion of the three-dimensional world, and so it's no surprise that gender exploration too comes as part of that. 

xyomiheartx as Hinako Shirai from Blue Reflection, photographed by hahex.arw

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