Nor Akelei
Germany
Thesis: Y/Our seedy bodies / Passing (on) immunity
Daring Trust, Locate Yourself!
Two posters, from 1983, to be read like a map. One poster is an edit of – and challenges – the other. These posters are displayed on a red 3-dimensional arrow which points towards the posters’ origin in former East Germany.
A: ‘Daring trust. Fear, love and trust god above all things’
The international modernist design principle of this poster uses arrow motifs to form a variation of the Christian crucifix. With each quadrant of the crucifix, the arrows’ increasing boldness towards the pictorial centre resemble a light that becomes stronger. To the arrows’ literal meaning of ‘pointing towards something’ the notion of a ‘guiding light’ is added.
B: ‘Daring trust in homosexuals’
This poster is a hand edited version of A. The discussion group ‘homosexuals in the church’ covered existing parts with paint and paper, cut off the bottom, and added new elements to alter the meaning of the original poster. The new design challenges the idea of the arrow. Two glued paper arrows, in the shape of the yellow originals but with two ends, push away from the pictorial centre—occupying the space of the crucifix. At the periphery of the crucifix these added arrows point and join the same gender symbols. Like an oxymoron, two design languages move towards and away from each other; an iteration of arrows map out various ideas and positions at stake in civil and institutional life, and so create a whole new image where the church and homosexuality intersect, as in the GDR, where the church offered oppositional protection.
*Shown as a reproduction in the exhibition, as the original is currently exhibited in the Schwules Museum Berlin.
