IN FORMATION

2026

 

Installation with textiles, paper, domestic objects, stone, tension straps, sound, and scent

Variable dimensions (site-specific)

​​​

In formation examines how gendered subjectivity is produced through processes of repetition, calibration, and everyday regulation. Rather than approaching silencing as a discrete act, the installation situates it within a broader infrastructural logic- one in which behavior is continuously adjusted, aligned, and stabilized over time.

​

The work engages formation as both condition and process. Drawing on spatial strategies of compression and vertical organization, it assembles paper, garments, and domestic materials into bound units that resemble administrative or archival structures. Within these stacks, distinct domains- speech, appearance, care, and bodily conduct- are not treated as separate themes but as parallel sites of training, each subjected to the same mechanisms of standardization and control.

​

In this sense, the installation resonates with feminist accounts of disciplinary formation, wherein power operates less through prohibition than through modulation. What is at stake is not the suppression of expression as such, but the gradual internalization of limits: adjustments of tone, posture, gesture, and affect that precede overt intervention. This logic extends beyond the visual field. A dispersed soundscape- composed of shushing and other correctional cues-circulates through the space, operating as a form of acoustic calibration. At the same time, a diffuse lilac scent permeates the environment, introducing a register of familiarity that remains slightly displaced. Together, these elements modulate the conditions of perception, reinforcing a system in which regulation is sensed before it is consciously registered.

​

The recurring use of binding- through industrial straps that hold heterogeneous materials in place- functions both structurally and conceptually. It enforces alignment while exposing the tension required to maintain it. Under compression, soft and functional materials are reduced to surfaces, their use suspended and their differences flattened into uniform arrangements.

​

At the center of the installation, a stack of paper introduces the opening of a letter: "Dear sister, this is how we were trained..." This address marks a shift from structure to articulation, yet remains materially constrained. The text is held in place and extended through the accumulation of pages.

​

In formation articulates the conditions through which compliance is produced- spatially, materially, and through repetition- revealing formation as an ongoing process that precedes and shapes the possibility of speech.