El(ena) Hoskyns-Abrahall

Votive

SWAB Barcelona

02-05 Oct 2025

𝙑𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚
/ˈvəʊtɪv/
offered or consecrated in fulfilment of a vow.

Votive explores the planes of queer embodiment through devotional objects. Casting symbols which make reference to the adolescent experience, the artist uses the visual language of the votive offering to create icons of transmasculine becoming. 

Precious materials such as silver, bronze, porcelain and glass intermingle with materials of traditional votive offerings like wax while pieces of furniture or folded environments become a reliquary of the self made. Sculptural objects meet jewellery meet artifact. 

Elena’s practice currently sits in a place of transition, finding and excavating what it means to be in progress or in the midst of process. When a transgender person begins medical transition it is almost as if they are transported to a point of adolescence again. Voice cracks, skin changes, body odour, new hair growth and more emotions than you know what to do with are all textbook for the adolescent experience, but pair this with choice, with wanting, with needing, and you have second-adolescence. Where often there is embarrassment or shame, instead you find bliss.

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