Movement plays a pivotal role in the work of Aion Arribas (1985). Arribas spent a large part of their life dancing, studied choreography and taught movement research. In their visual art practice, they explore movement in relation to pleasure, gender, sexuality, and ‘neuroqueering’: disrupting ideas of what is considered ‘normal’ thinking and behaviour. These themes are also central to the video triptych Dear Rubsters.
In Dear Rubsters (2025), Arribas explores a genealogy of practices associated with lesbianism and the vulva. Scissoring (2022–ongoing) depicts two hands, lubricated, touching each other. The video highlights the fact that the word ‘scissoring’ is used derisively to describe lesbian sex, and offers a reparative exercise as a counterbalance. Rubbing (2022) shows intimate images of feet, buttocks, arms and other body parts rubbing against everyday objects. Dildoing (2025–ongoing) is inspired by the work of Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado, who argues in Manifeste contra-sexuel (2000) that every part of the body can function as a dildo – a perspective that broadens sex and detaches it from the genitals.
Through intimate movements combined with reflective voiceovers, Arribas consider a range of questions. Which acts are considered sexual, and why? To what extent are sexual activities linked to gender identity and binary thinking, for example through ‘active’ and ‘passive’ roles? And how might we look at this differently? Dear Rubsters demonstrates that sex and pleasure encompass a far broader spectrum than is commonly represented from cis, heteronormative or homonormative perspectives.
Text: Sarah van Binsbergen