‘I dead the heart, I am not for loving anymore.’(Eimear Mcbride: A girl is a half formed thing, 2013)
I am not for loving anymore, the first solo show of Imogen-Blue Hinojosa in Brussels, Belgium, is a physical and performative reply to ongoing violence toward trans women and sex workers globally. The date of the first public presentation of the works in Berlin in September 2022 marked one year since the death of Ella Nik Bayan, a transgender woman who publicly self immolated at Alexanderplatz. ‘I think many trans women of colour in the community can relate to Ella’s story, we suffer constant harassment and violent attacks’ says Hinojosa about her relation to Ella. This tragedy resonated profoundly in Berlin’s trans and queer community due to its obvious political meaning. Public officials have largely denied this, however, continuing historical patterns of trans exclusion from public life.
This new series of works was created particularly for Hošek Contemporary gallery in Berlin after Hinojosa was awarded the Hošek Contemporary Prize 2022. The work focuses on a long history of connections between cloth makers and sex work. Hinojosa’s creative process uncovers historical cloth making techniques that imbued mainstream public life with the lives of marginalised women and sex workers who suffered to produce it. Hinojosa weaves together this historical erasure of women and what it meant to be a textile craftsperson with the current erasure of trans narratives, recovering and celebrating both the history of these forgotten women, and the experiences of trans sex workers.
The installation consists of three physical artworks - The Severity of Affection, Cocoon I, and Cocoon II, featuring custom handmade leatherwork, handwoven textiles by the artist on her loom, and recycled cloth pieces from trans sex workers in London, Ireland and Berlin. On the night of the opening reception, the artist will perform a self composed text written over the last two years, related to the topics of the exhibition.
When visitors approach The Severity of Affection, their first impression might be of a common fetish object that could be found in any Berlin darkroom. But this custom, five-point suspended, black leather sex swing hides something else underneath: a quilted collage made out of real clients’ socks and underwear. These tokens from men include brands which could be potentially sexualised, such as Lonsdale, Hugo Boss, Fila, CK or Everlast. One could think of a human body which is here cleverly represented by those once worn items, yet the body is absent.