The language of secrets

The student turning anonymous confessions into art  

It’s the year 3024, and scientists have just unearthed a chest from a crumbling art gallery buried deep beneath the rubble of what was once a bustling city. As they finally heave the creaking lid open, they find pages covered in hundreds of mysterious symbols. Despite their most sophisticated decoding tools, not even a single sentence can be untangled from the indecipherable sequences.  

The works are traced back to artist Portia McQueen, a Massey University Fine Arts student who has designed her own cryptic language to keep secrets hidden. 

Through a QR code, Portia invites people to anonymously submit their secrets and confessions. She then embeds them into her pieces.  

Portia hopes that for those who submit their secrets, it enables them to “get it off their chest in a safe way”.   

“Even just to write their secret down and give it to someone for them to put it out in the world in a different language is releasing in a way.”   

Portia has crafted a visual language that challenges anyone who attempts to unlock its meaning.  

“Even if you tried to translate it, you’d be like, what the fuck?” she laughs. 

During Portia’s second year, a visit to a Frida Kahlo exhibition sparked a fascination with symbols and their hidden meanings. Portia describes her art at the time as cartoonish and doodle-y, until a classmate pointed out that her doodles resembled a secret language. 

This observation sparked inspiration.  

“I was very into hieroglyphics as a kid, so a lot of my inspiration comes from that.”  

As she began to refine her symbols, she created two distinct alphabets. Portia says this pushed her art further into abstract realms where meaning is intentionally obscured. 

“There are two versions — one’s based on memories and personal interpretations, and the other is inspired by technology, like something inside a motherboard.” 

At the beginning, she used Dada poetry techniques to construct random, nonsensical sentences. Only recently has she begun hiding secrets instead.  

While Portia admits that there’s a possibility of decoding her symbols there’s no way to connect any secret to its author. So, the secrets stay hidden, wrapped in Portia’s labyrinth of symbols, a vault of unspoken thoughts she alone understands. 

With the artistic influences of Keith Haring’s bold lines and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s raw, expressive energy, Portia has created a new and unique meaning to art. Inviting confusion and curiosity, Portia sets a challenge for her audiences. 

 “I want people to feel confused.”  

While she’s dropped hints through her titles, none have cracked the code. “Some have tried, but they haven’t gotten very far.” 

With her graduation coming closer and closer, Portia plans to continue exploring the ways she can create tension between secrecy and exposure in her work.  

“I want to do more exhibitions next year,” she says, hoping to share her cryptic creations with a wider audience.  

Currently, her focus is set on her maximalist-themed exhibition at DYED Galleries opening on the 25th of September. Here, her love for colour, texture, and complexity will be on full display.  

In a world often obsessed with clarity and explanation, Portia’s pieces stand defiantly secretive and unique.  

In the years to come when scientists spend their days decoding her invented alphabet, her work will continue to invite audiences into a maze of meaning and mystery where they may never reach the centre.  

And that’s exactly how she likes it.