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Gig Ratt‼️

@gigrattmakes

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3D collage & sculpture artist
Creating on unceded Turrbal & Jagera land
🍉🍉🍉

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HAVE I STAYED AWAY TOO LONG? (The Crucifix)

Have I stayed away too long?
After all I’ve done,
Can I still be forgiven?

I wanted to make a piece that illustrated my current relationship with religion. I was raised Christian, but I don’t consider myself religious anymore. The kind of Christianity I was brought up around specifically has always felt like it had a cannibalistic nature to it to me. So, I wanted to make a piece that reflected that. One of the first things we learn (in Christian religious studies), is that Jesus supposedly gave of his body, and fed 4000 (or 5000, depending on who you ask) people with just 5 loaves of bread, and 2 fish. I’ve been feeding my body to the church, and to my family for 22 years, often against my will, and all I’ve got to show for it is this Crucifix.
What does the Christian church do with the rest of you once they’re done eating you? Does your soul go to Heaven, or does your consciousness stay down here on earth without a body? And if it’s the latter, is that Hell? Some would say “Hell is separation from God,” and if that’s the case, then brother, I’ve been burning since the day I was born🔥🔥🔥
All the eyeballs, and the scissors were drawn by me. The ‘Chain Me Down’ and Church Archway stickers were drawn by the awesome artist @dazedandsubduedd , who also has a lot of art to do with Christian religious trauma! The picture on the bottom board is from one of those ‘find Jesus’ pamphlets I found at the bus stop. I did find Jesus, hope you LOVE what I did with him 🥰🥰

#mixedmedia #punkart #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #religious #religioustrauma #gothic #sacredheart by @gigrattmakes

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2 years ago

FELITA THE FURRY PINK BOX

I accept the pain.
Would you recognise me without it?

This one is my first attempt at a sculpture, and my first proper self portrait! The idea I had going into this one was, what if I could talk to my trauma? If I could envision it, embody it, and have a conversation with it, what would it say? What would it look like? Do I recognise myself without it?
I think this is my answer to all of those questions! She’s me, she’s not me, she’s my trauma, she’s my inner child, she’s the parts of myself that I fear, she’s the parts of myself I adore, and everything in between.
This is my pain. It’s glittery, it’s sparkly, it’s cute, and silly, and beautiful, but it’s also sharp, messy, and uncaring. How can you ask a lump of cardboard to care about how it’s making you feel? Try as I might, it’s like talking to a wall. The pain won’t care how she’s making me feel, but I can’t get rid of her either. So, if I can’t make it go away, I’ll have to figure out how to really listen to her instead.

The beaded words on the side of the stand read,
“I accept the pain, would you recognise me without it?”
The words on the tongue read,
“You can’t hide from me.”

Everything you see here was made and assembled by me! The base structure of the box itself, and well as the stand it’s on, are both made of cardboard, and wrapped in layers of paper and fabric. The heart eyes, and the heart sign inside the mouth, are also made of cardboard, and bedazzled with nail art charms. The eyes on the inside of the mouth are made from polymer clay, and painted by me. The tongue, the teeth, and the eyebrows are made of wire wrapped in aluminium foil and fabric mache, and then coated with a glossy varnish. The beaded blood drips on the teeth, and the beads on the side of the box were all assembled by me, though I did not make the beads themselves.

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #fabricsculpture #maximalism #maximalist #y2k #y2kart #cardboardsculpture #recycledmaterials by @gigrattmakes

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2 years ago

CITY OF SPIKES
‘RIDE ON, COWBOY’

I made this artwork after visiting my family in the USA in October 2025. With the rise of American fascism, my growing fears for the safety of my family, and the fact that they could not be geographically further away, this piece was an exploration of nationality and identity. It’s my attempt to understand my relationship to the place I was born, but have spent very little of my life in, and the family that I come from, but have spent so much of my life trying to get away from.

The initial inspiration came from some images of the place I was born given to me by my maternal grandmother, as well as some images from a vintage ‘cowboy cookbook’ she had and the memory of a song my dad used to walk around the house singing all the time. I come from the desert and the swamp, and I always find my way back there.
This piece features original poetry from me, as well as song lyrics from:
‘Been Away Too Long’ by Soundgarden
‘Sun Bleached Flies’ by Ethel Cain
‘500 Miles’ by The Seekers

P.S - if you were curious, the song my dad used to sing all the time was the Soundgarden song. I think he liked Chris Cornell’s stuff a lot because they had almost a similar vocal range and the man’s a big fan of grunge. Also, I handmade the little cactuses from wooden forks and fabric >:3

(Cardboard, cardstock, vintage magazines and photos, fabric, faux leather, fox bones, spikes, beads, chain, rhinestone and charms.)

#mixedmedia #collage #maximalism #queerartist #punkart by @gigrattmakes

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2 months ago

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3 months ago

Battle jacket pics from a shoot with @josephwlynch at @houseconspiracy last week!
He did an amazing job and was so lovely and easy to work with, thanks so much to Joe for the awesome pics!

‘Live, Laugh, Lower Back Pain’ patch is made by me from a sticker by @doom_draws_
Barbed wire patch as well as the tshirt underneath are designs by @jaylatattoo by @gigrattmakes

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3 months ago

We’re stoked to introduce our latest Artist in Residence, Gig Ratt aka @gigrattmakes !!

“Gig Ratt is a queer collage and 3D sculpture artist currently creating on unceded Turrbal & Jagera land. Their art combines elements of play, childhood magic, and unconventional materials with darker themes of trauma, grief, and difficult family dynamics to create highly detailed works that both draw the viewer in, and invite them to ask questions about their own lives and experiences.”

Watch this space for more details regarding Gig Ratt’s upcoming residency showcase! by @gigrattmakes

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4 months ago

Lil update post for ya! I’ve been really inspired to make patches recently. Here’s some of the ones I’ve made over the past month :)

Pics 1-3: Artist patch for the band @destroyboysband + sticker patch from a @zkarv_band design
4: Hand embroidered bead patch
5: Artist patch for @mudrat.mp3
6: Hand painted patch with stitched wire lettering
7: Charm patch
8: Pet patches + ‘No Justice, No Peace’ bumper sticker patch
9: Pet patches made from photo prints
10: Boot print stamp patch
11: ‘Lend Me Your Sorrows’ faux leather hand-painted cross patch
12: Dagger through the heart spikey beaded blood patch

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #queer #sapphic #sapphicart #sapphicartist #patch #artpatch #diy #diyclothes #crustpunk #patchedjeans by @gigrattmakes

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9 months ago

This is a commission for @angeltrick that I made earlier this year for her lovely dog Cas who passed away in January. I used a jar containing his fur, his collar and a locket with his baby picture inside to create this piece. I had a lot of fun making this piece but it was also pretty labor intensive, I think it would be fun to make a couple of these per year :3

Thank you so much to Kella for trusting me with these precious items and for being so patient and positive during the whole process!

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #petportrait #memorial #alldogsgotoheaven #dog #pets by @gigrattmakes

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10 months ago

WHEREVER YOU ARE… MY LOVE WILL FIND YOU
Flim flam post! This one is partially inspired by some family feelings I was having, and partially inspired by a Mumford & Sons song I had stuck in my head at the time. I combined some panels from the manga ‘Komi Can’t Communicate’ by Tomohito Oda with the title piece from a children’s book and this is what happened! I was thinking about the people from my life who I still can’t help but love in my way, even though I’m not allowed to anymore. Though I can’t be around a lot of those people, and I really don’t want to, I like to think that in SOME way, my love still reaches them, wherever they are. It’s not always a warm kind of love, and it’s not always comfortable, for me or for the person receiving it, but it is forever, and that’s not something ANYBODY can change or take away.

All that being said, this one is definitely also about all of my family members who live very far away and who I think about all the time. THOUGH YOU ARE FAR AWAY, I’M WATCHING YOU ALL THE TIME…. So treat yourself nicely and remember to eat well and often, cuz I’m looking and I’ll freakin GET you if you act mean to somebody I love.

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #traumaart #foundfamily #longdistancelove #international #internationalartist #baroque #lace by @gigrattmakes

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a year ago

PRAY THE ROSARY
I’m finding myself very fond of this one already, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as I’ve been excited to use the pamphlet on the front. I want to tell you all about how it came into my possession, and I hope my loved ones won’t be sick of hearing this story yet.
So in July of 2023, I went to visit my paternal grandmother in the states for the first time since COVID. It had been about four years since I’d been to the US, and longer since I’d seen her. I spent a week sleeping on her couch.
My Grandmother lives with her sister, ‘Aunt D’, who has been a devout Christian since I’ve known her. She has a ‘prayer chair’ in the living room, and every morning she gets up at the crack of dawn and does her daily worship there. This chair just so happens to sit right next to the couch.
You can see where I’m going with this, but I’ll tell you anyway that there are few things in this world that have unsettled me more than waking up at 6am every morning in someone else’s home to an Aunt you don’t know very well whispering psalms over your body in complete darkness. Oh, and when I got home, she sent me this pamphlet with a handmade rosary and a letter about how grateful she was to be able to have ‘witnessed’ me coming to Christ. Don’t know where she got that last part from, but thanks I guess.

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #rosary #baroque #queerartist #praytherosary by @gigrattmakes

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a year ago

This piece was made about a week before my Grandfather passed suddenly. At the time, it was about my dread over the state of the United States, my fear for what will become of the country and the feeling that we’re running out of time. Now, I think it’s about him. It’s scary to think that you never really know how much time you have left with the people in your life. He was one of the people I thought of as ‘home’ at one point in my life, and I’ll always be grateful for that. Though our relationship was complicated at times, I know my grandfather loved me, he always loved my art, and he loved the beach and the water, and I like to think he’d love this one too.

The painting on the front is by Alexander Chen.

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #recycledmaterialsart #spikes #viviennwestwood by @gigrattmakes

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a year ago

This piece started out as a Flim Flam, but evolved into its own thing, so I don’t really have a name for her yet (but I’m thinking about calling it ‘This Must Be Hard Times’). I realised that you can sing ‘This Must Be The Place’ by Talking Heads and replace some of the lyrics with ones from ‘Hard Times’ by Ethel Cain, and that’s kinda what got this piece going! The background image is from a rainforest in Puerto Rico, ‘El Yunque’, and the skull image on the front is depicting a 4yr old child, which is how old I would’ve been when we moved away from the United States. I think this piece is about my idea of ‘home’, the feeling of being ripped away from the place that you’re from, and never really being able to go back there. The places that I’m ‘from’ aren’t really around anymore, and I never really thought of them as my ‘home’. I suppose one of the gifts of adulthood is being able to choose where you’ll stay and make your own home.

#mixedmedia #punkart #punk #queerart #queerartist #brisbaneart #brisbaneartist #gothicart #goth #meanjin #brisbane #alternative #alternativeart #alternativeartist #collage #collageartist #stickers #foundobjects #foundobjectart #papersculpture #maximalism #maximalist #recycledmaterials #recycledmaterialsart #piercings #nationalgeographic by @gigrattmakes

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a year ago