“voguing” , the installation from “udk rundgang 2010/aus dem Kontext

voguing, an installation with mimosa pudica, wallpaper and roland barthes’ “fragments of a lover’s discourse”

by aykan safoğlu

My M.A. thesis ” A form migrates: the floral wallpaper and its rededications in the homosexual Istanbul of 80s” is a product of artistic research that I carried out in museums and gay
spaces in Istanbul in March 2010. In this research I focused on the floral wallpaper from
the 1980s and the ways in which it was used in homosexual circles of Istanbul.
The motifs of the wallpaper represented those political and social acts that were
quintessential for the majority society of the 1980s in Istanbul. Characteristics of this society
were heterosexuality, family and tradition centered on the patriarch. Ironically, the
floral wallpaper experienced a new meaning in the context of the homo and transgender
world—gender specific and performative.
The artistic part of my thesis is the installation “Voguing,” which utilizes the wallpaper motif
of the 1980s living room from Istanbul. The wallpaper consists of two motifs, the
plant mimosa pudica, which reacts to physical contact, and Barthes’ book “Fragments of a Lover’s
Discourse”. Both motifs are woven together and form a new wallpaper.
The title of the artistic work “Voguing” refers to the dance form which developed in the
ball houses of New York in the homo and transgender scene in the 1980s. In this dance,
poses and moves were intentionally exaggerated.
The illustration of mimosa pudica in the installation should be understood as a metaphor
for this exaggeration.

(photos are taken by can sungu& annika rixen)

thanks to gülay, adnan, keanan, can