Voguing is not a crime

(2024), installation, printed fabrics, hand embroidery, black lights and electroacoustic composition. Activated through a performance. Gallerie éphémère, Centre Tignous d’art contemporain, Montreuil (France). Photos: Nils Maisonneuve.

This installation is a memorial dedicated to O'Shae Sibley, 28, murdered on July 29, 2023, in Brooklyn. O'Shae was voguing* at a gas station when he received racist and homophobic insults before being stabbed. Suspended fabrics printed with fragments of protests create a spectral sanctuary that invites remembrance. Excerpts from activist Qween Jean's eulogy are embroidered on them. A sound composition fills the space like a contemporary mass.

*Voguing is a dance form that originated in black and latinX ballroom culture in the U.S.

HELIO VOLANA

Voguing is not a crime