Hanuman the Handyman (2019) Kolaże autorstwa Toby Leon

"Hanuman the Handyman" is a whirling carousel of narratives. A spectacle of divine acrobatics. An oversaturated cosmic dance fusing my own photographs with antique illustrations, all brought to life in a deluge of color and light.

An international god revered from India to Bali to Thailand, scholars have whispered that Hanuman may even have moonlighted as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King in the Chinese epic, the Journey to the West. Hanuman isn’t just a deity, then. He’s his own Tower of Babel, in a way. Becoming a figurative space for folks in Denpasar and Delhi to project their hopes and prayers, finding commonality in their shared devotion to this beacon of hope, good luck and good cheer. Which also makes Hanuman a celebrity, in another way. A venerated figure who people think they know but have never met. So I booked Hanuman for this gig and flung him into the spotlight. Again. This time, as an acrobat, a performer, a star who’s spent millenia preparing for this debut. And it's all there, in his eyes, in his hands that hold myriad weapons, in his riotous laughter as he hits his first bullseye of the evening.

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Series Statement

My digital collage series, "Candy Babel’s Carnival for Kidults" is a metaphorical midway. Drawing from the ancient narrative of the Tower of Babel, a monument of human audacity that was splintered into a mélange of tongues and cultures, I find connection with echoes of the travelling circus — bringing together disparate groups of people ‘under one tent’. In this reconstructed Babel, the tower becomes a stage, a spectacle, where the othered and the marginalized, the 'freaks,' dare to exist in their full, vibrant humanity. And people pay to see it. Encapsulating the essence of play in its purest form — joyous, unifying, transformative.

In this carnival, play isn’t recreational, it’s revolutionary. The carnival becomes a tableau vivant, where each performance is an act of rebellion and acceptance, a safe space in the most vulnerable of places — on stage. The queer, the different, the non-normative, can all find a home here, shining stars in this periphery.

I present to you a kaleidoscopic world that basks in its rainbow otherness. Revelling in its queerness. Through this work, I hope to engage in a dialogue about the myriad ways in which we express and experience our humanity. I aim to challenge perceptions, to provoke thought, and to celebrate the beautiful complexity of our existence. Come, join the carnival, and rediscover the world through the vibrant lens of Candy Babel's Carnival for Kidults.

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