Queer Joy as Political Resistance
Rave and Revolution is a new acrylic painting on paper from my ongoing Coven series.
Created in Berlin and inspired by a summer day at the lake, this piece explores the connection between queer joy, freedom, activism, and rave culture. Through bright colours, naked bodies, friendship, music, and hidden political references, it celebrates the idea that pleasure and resistance can go hand in hand.
Rave and Revolution
Acrylic on paper
84.1 × 59.4 cm (A1)
From the Coven series
Created in Berlin, Germany
What is Rave and Revolution about?
At first glance, Rave and Revolution looks like a carefree summer scene. Friends hanging by the water, people dancing in the distance, lovers hiding behind bushes, music floating through the air, and bodies existing without shame.
But underneath all that sunshine is a simple question: what happens when people create spaces outside the rules imposed on them?
The painting imagines a temporary world built on freedom, solidarity, self-expression, and mutual care. A world where queer people, rebels, dreamers, and activists come together not only to celebrate life, but also to challenge the systems that try to control it.
In that sense, the rave becomes more than a party. It becomes a political act.
Why is rave culture political?
Throughout history, dance floors have often served as places of refuge for communities pushed to the margins. Queer people, artists, punks, activists, and other subcultures have used music and collective celebration to create spaces where different ways of living could exist, even if only temporarily.
Rave culture carries this legacy.
A free party is not simply about entertainment. It can be a declaration of autonomy. A rejection of surveillance, conformity, shame, and social hierarchy. A reminder that community can be built through participation rather than consumption.
The people in Rave and Revolution are not escaping reality. They are experimenting with another version of it.
Queer Bodies, Freedom, and Collective Joy
A lot of my work explores intimacy, vulnerability, and the beauty of bodies living outside restrictive norms.
In Rave and Revolution, nakedness is not scandalous or provocative. It is simply natural. The figures exist comfortably with themselves, each other, and their surroundings.
The painting celebrates queer visibility, body liberation, friendship, chosen family, and the power of gathering together.
For me, queer joy is political because it refuses fear and creates community where isolation is expected.
Art, Activism, and Resistance
Hidden throughout the painting are references to anti-fascism, anti-capitalism, solidarity movements, and collective resistance.
These ideas appear alongside laughter, dancing, friendship, sex, and leisure. Because activism is not only found in protests and slogans. It is also found in how we care for each other, build communities, imagine different futures, and defend our right to joy.
The Coven Series
Rave and Revolution is part of my Coven series, a body of work exploring community, rebellion, friendship, queerness, pleasure, and collective empowerment.
The coven is not a fantasy. It is the people who choose each other, protect each other, and keep dancing despite everything.
About the Artist
CiccaBoom is a Berlin-based queer artist creating figurative paintings about LGBTQIA+ experiences, feminism, intimacy, activism, pleasure, and social change.
Through colourful narratives and unapologetically human characters, her work explores how joy, love, rebellion, and community can become acts of resistance.