With Forests in Our Mouths
Info

Chapter 1: Like Déjà-Vu But The Other Way Around
Format: Exhibition, sound installation (30 min loop)
Dates: 05 - 21 Apr 2024, Vernissage 04 Apr 2024
Venue: Titanik, Turku (FI)
Language: English, Damiá






Like Déjà-Vu But The Other Way Around is the first chapter in the durational constellation artwork With Forests in Our Mouths — Speaking Queer Utopias into Being by ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS (2024-25). It explores Queer futures through a constructed Queer language called Damiá.

The front room of Titanik gallery houses a ‘folk archive’ (2020-24) including artefacts produced by the emergent Damiá speech community, such as textiles, photography, fonts, bookworks, films and songs. In the back room a multi-channel sound installation evokes a utopian Queer bar where only Damiá is spoken. Over interwoven voices, a large handsewn banner declares: bacve, asi ca asi daz, camsa! An ink drawing reimagines The Stonewall Inn in a parallel reality. The artefacts and installation blur fact and fiction and reflect the ongoing proposal of Damiá as both an idea and real-world multi-year community art practice. Together they ask what it would mean for Queer people to have our own language.

The works fantasise on the notion of the Queer Bar as a kind of utopia — an everywhere and a nowhere. In this iteration, it is also a linguistic space; a quantum universe where we can speak to each other with brand new words.

Aslan began creating Damiá as a Queer teenager and has worked with it ever since. It is a fully functioning language, with a dictionary and grammar, and Aslan speaks it fluently. In 2020, after more than 10 years living and working together, Chris began learning it in earnest. In the years since, ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS have taught online classes to a growing community of Queer learners, and created and shared texts, performances, and artworks in Damiá. Damiá has only ever been spoken by Queer people.

If you would like to find out more about Damiá, or even learn it, then contact us at info@oncewewereislands.com.






Artworks; sound installation: Chris Gylee & Aslan
Artwork contributions: Esther Boles, Óscar González, Elena Polzer, Julia Cervantes & Zach Blumner
Poster banner: Elena Polzer
Poster photography: Óscar González
Sound support: Arvid van der Rijt
Featured voices: Olivia & Margaret Basterfield, Jennifer Bell, Abby Boak, Elliott Cennetoglu, Amber Fasquelle, Kit Gee, Óscar González, Fedor Herrmann, Mmakgosi Kgabi, Inky Lee, Elena Polzer, Animal J. Smith, amongst others
Exhibition photography: Johanna Naukkarinen


List of Works



FRONT ROOM, anticlockwise from door

1. Dea Carebmar / 2023 / three calligraphy prints on paper, 12 x 12 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

2. Bela / 2024 / embroidery and collage on found photograph, 18 x 13 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

3. Emails / 2022 / five prints on paper, 18 x 24 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

4. Daboor Aalma Vai / 2024 / digital production photograph of Bark of Millions by Taylor Mac (full credits* below), 20 x 15 / Julieta Cervantes; banner design by Zach Blumner

5. The Crossing Poster / 2023 / digital photograph of poster, 15 x 20 / Óscar González; poster design by Kruse & Müller

6. Onai, Sinárra, Ioidar / 2022 / Medium Format Photograph on Rolleiflex 3,5f, Fujifilm Provia 100 — fine art print Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308g, 50 x 50 / Óscar González

7. ‘D’ for Damiá / 2024 / t shirt / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

8. Pink Lining on the Horizon / 2023 / textile banner, 57 x 73 / Elena Polzer

9. Three Kinds of Love / 2024 / three collages on Kiasma postcards, 10 x 15 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

10. Pvezzeba /2024 / three vintage plates with inscriptions / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

11. O Na Nie Sie / 2023 / study text with notes, 24 x 18 / Esther Boles

12. Oa Tompo Va / 2020 / embroidered postcard, 14 x 9 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

13. AGIA / The Crossing / 2023 / film, 75 min, (EN DE DA) / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS & Ethan Allison Folk

14. Queer Tongues / 2021 / documentary film, 39 min, (EN DA) / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

15. Ban-Ban, Vos, Oco / 2021-22 / three digital collages, 15 x 15 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

16. Aa, Bee, Cee / 2024 / calligraphy practice sheets, bamboo pen & ink / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

17. Utsuku Hana Nā / unknown / book with inscription / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

Installation also includes unnamed objects and ephemera not listed above. 


LIBRARY TABLE & LISTENING STATION

18. Expanded Liner Notes With Additional Letters, Essays + Studio Visits With the Artists to Accompany the Extended Play Record Homecoming — Greatest Hits! / 2022 / book / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS with contributions by Amber Fasquelle, Jennifer Bell, Mars Dietz, Elie Gregory, Inky Lee, MINQ, Óscar González, Elliott Cennetoglu, Ethan Allison Folk, Mmakgosi Kgabi / fonts by Monika Janulevičiūtė

19. A Structural Grammar of Damiá / 2022 / book / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

20. Damiá 1: a queer tongue / 2021 / zine / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

21. The Crossing / 2023 / playscript and programme notes / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

22. Leo Cie lo — A Series of Artefacts from the Near Future / 2024 / booklet / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS, article from Interalia, issue 18 2023, The multilingual issue, eds. Anna T. & Antkek Engel

23. Campo Ders / 2024 / booklet / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS with notes by Óscar González & Olivia Basterfield

24. E Ion Sie Tolpata Vai / 2024 / booklet / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

25. Queer Tongue Dot Com / 2022 / website / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS, web design by Greta Augustinaitė

26. Damiá Dictionary / online dictionary / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS, web design by Trent Pehrson

27. Tolpata Alphabet Postcard / 2022 / embossed on card, 11 x 15 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS with font by Monika Janulevičiūtė

28. Homecoming — Greatest Hits! / 2022 / EP vinyl & online / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS with songs by Amber Fasquelle, Jennifer Bell, Mars Dietz, Elie Gregory, Inky Lee, MINQ, Aslan


BACK ROOM

29. Cortieena Sango / 2024 / ribbon curtain, 100 x 230 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

30. Bacve Asi Ca Asi Daz Camsa / 2024 / textile banner, 140 x 195 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

31. Daceeca Tasiba Olontana-Olontana / 2024 / 6-channel sound installation, 30-min. loop (DA) / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS with the voices of Olivia & Margaret Basterfield, Jennifer Bell, Abby Boak, Elliott Cennetoglu, Amber Fasquelle, Kit Gee, Óscar González, Fedor Herrmann, Mmakgosi Kgabi, Inky Lee, Elena Polzer, Animal J Smith / music from Homecoming — Greatest Hits! by Jennifer Bell, Mars Dietz, Elie Gregory, Aslan / sound support Arvid van der Rijt

32. Has Be Ai Ciebie Vai / 2024 / print of ink on paper, 20 x 20 / ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

Chapters: ❶ Like Déjà-Vu But The Other Way Around ❷ Thick Time ❸ Remembering Colours ❹ Helialá — a gathering of poems ❺ Palace of Ash & Rain