Trans Crip Nihilism and Chronic Perspective

Kean O’Brien
Sep 14
4 min read

I am not a positivist in regards to fighting for the existence for trans bodies, especially trans crip bodies; the apparatus that has sanctioned trans crip bodies as other will never serve liberation. I am not writing in favor of creating a better world but rather refusing to exist within this structural binary world. The extension of examining materiality is to look at capitalism and its role in trans nihilism. Capital has to continue to prevail and only can do this if reproducing our future. But there is no future, especially for trans sick/disabled bodies.

Chronic Perspective focuses on the tension and trauma that I hold in my queer, trans, chronically sick, white, disabled body. This work uses photographic imagery from an iPhone that I then turn into paint-by-number canvases. These photographic paintings speak to form, medium, and constitution and unintentionally begin to explore a history in which cisgender ableist subjectivity has dominated. I push up against traditional painting techniques and hold space for these to be seen beyond the trajectory of painting but rather of that of image making. To queer or crip something is to challenge our expectations, defamiliarize and make a new in ways we have never imagined. Through taking these photographs, which due to the nature of being hospitalized and experiencing trauma, I do not remember taking, I offer a new self-narrative as I meticulously paint each image. My body becomes the subject of my own narrative, somehow objectifying my own body and point of view. My genderless body and perspective in each of these images show the disconnected nature of being hospitalized and concepts of time, loss, erasure of self, and the vulnerability that a body has within this positionality.

This project is a point of departure to bring together ideas of self-portraiture through environments, a moment of subversion to painting as a medium, and these new ideas i have around trans crip nihilism. I am defining a positivist approach to nihilism where we could let go of idealizing futures and fearing death and instead acknowledge the actual fear is living sick and miserable with no option of death.

The force of the capitalist occupation is where I hope to extend my understanding of Edelman and propose that the conversation of trans nihilism must be discussed with a lens of death-stage capitalism; which accurately conveys the unique intensity of our annihilation. In response to late stage capitalism I want to concretely define what death-stage capitalism is in direct relationship to trans nihilism. Late stage capitalism is a place in time that is seen as our present and future; perhaps a permanent time. As we argue for the destruction of capitalism we are assuming a future beyond that destruction. I plan to theorize on how trans crip bodies will never be given safety from precariousness with this fantasy idea of the nation state supporting us through any form of politic or legislation. In fact our precarity is more deeply present and the only way to find joy will be to accept the fate of extinction. I am curious to find out what is also at stake here beyond joy? Where and when does this begin? How is the sculpture read as an object of this trans nihilist positioning?

Anarchy, as a political ideology that advocates for the abolition of hierarchical structures of authority, including the state and capitalism, views late-stage capitalism through a critical lens. Anarchists often see late-stage capitalism as the culmination of inherent flaws and contradictions within the capitalist system, leading to increased exploitation, oppression, and ecological destruction. The anarchist position believes that late-stage capitalism exacerbates exploitation of the working class, as capitalist enterprises seek to maximize profits by extracting surplus value from laborers through mechanisms such as low wages, precarious employment, and harsh working conditions, and lack of health benefits.Late-stage capitalism is seen as perpetuating and exacerbating economic inequality, with wealth becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small capitalist class while the majority of the population experiences economic insecurity and poverty. Anarchists contend that late-stage capitalism relies on authoritarian structures, such as the state and corporate power, to maintain control and suppress dissent. This can manifest in increased surveillance, militarization of police forces, and repression of social movements that challenge the status quo.

Late-stage capitalism accelerates environmental degradation and ecological destruction in pursuit of profit, leading to crises such as climate change, pollution, and resource depletion. Capitalist enterprises prioritize short-term gains over long-term sustainability, disregarding the wellbeing of ecosystems and future generations. Defining late-stage capitalism in the terms of anarchy is crucial so that my proposal of trans nihilism is grounded in anarchist theory. Which, together, leads me to my definition of death-stage capitalism.

Death-stage capitalism is not a commonly used term within mainstream economic, political or academic discourse. I am proposing that it is a theoretical stage of capitalism characterized by extreme crises, profound social instability, and potentially the collapse of the capitalist system itself; where inherent contradictions and unsustainable practices of capitalism reach a point of no return, leading to widespread economic collapse, social unrest, and environmental catastrophe and within this hypothetical stage, the negative consequences of capitalism—such as inequality, exploitation, environmental degradation, and financial instability— we have reached such extreme levels that they threaten the very survival of human society.

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About the Author

Kean O’Brien (he/they) (b. 1984, Lima, Ohio) is a white trans, chronically ill, disabled, artist, educator, and academic living between Chicago and Madison. As a multimedia artist working interdisciplinarily between photography, painting, found images, installation, and writing, he focuses on the nuance of gendered construction, whiteness, and the body as a landscape for survival, death, grief, and trauma. His academic writing explores the current landscape of higher education from an abolitionist, decolonial lens. He has a longstanding commitment to radical pedagogy, community building, and grassroots organizing. He is called upon to approach his work from a place of solidarity with the communities and environments that hold him, to create a sustainable collective for art and writing to thrive in and to aid in the breaking down of the toxic systems leading marginalized bodies, earth and society to global collapse.