felix d’eon‘s oeuvre stretches across the typical visual language of japanese scrolls, comic strips, cigarette cards, music sheets and almost all known forms of nostalgic illustration from the nineteenth- century onwards. the anecdotal scenes conform to the style of the time, but instead of the expected imagery d’eon uses vignettes of gay erotica. this anachronistic approach in his work attempts to blur the timeline of political and social acceptance of homosexuality. through injecting a sense of innocence and art-historical influences he takes the struggle against the marginalisation of the gay community to a bygone era; in effect attempting to right the wrongs of the past. through his transparent methodology of superimposing a gay romantic and erotic narrative onto a familiar and even clichéd vintage format, he succeeds in taking the perception of subversive to a sentimental level; it is this aspect of his work that i find most captivating and valiant… the disarmed activism with which he alludes to a past without oppression and creates an antidote to a history of prejudice.