Documentation of Tabitha Nikolai’s Utopia Without You. Photo: Mario Gallucci, courtesy of Williamson | Knight, Portland, OR

Fresh off her solo exhibition, Utopia Without You at Williamson | Knight in Portland, OR, artist Tabitha Nikolai linked up with me to talk Nightcore, earnest rites of suburban occult, post-cataclysmic world-building, junk food asteroids, crust punk elves in the Pacific Northwest, a general malaise with liberalism and prescriptive visibility, isolation and gaming, her fictitious corporation called Dynamic Horizons Ltd, upgrade culture, planned and perceived obsolescence, cosplay and D&D, performative allyship in art institutions and gallery spaces, and growing up in Utah. The outro music is Don McClean’s “The Flight of Dragons (Nightcore Remix).”

Humor and the Abject just migrated over from Drip to Patreon. Subscribe today for just $3/mo.

Scope images of Tabitha’s work below the embedded episode.