who has come, who has gone

2016 Performance
Close view of the performer seated with one bare leg extended across the frame. They wear a loose hooded garment covered in a large black-and-white butterfly pattern and bend their head closely toward their leg. Several golden butterflies are attached to the skin of the thigh and lower leg through inserted needles. The performer looks downward toward the marked leg, their face close to the skin. An open notebook, photographs of trans people who were murdered or died by suicide, and used alcohol pads from the needling process lie on the rug behind them under saturated pink-red light, while small green and red patches of light fall across their clothing and body.
Close view of the performer seated with one bare knee raised. Wearing the hooded black-and-white butterfly-patterned garment, they bend forward and use both hands to attach a golden butterfly to their leg through a needle. Their eyes are lowered toward their hands and their brow is slightly drawn. Puncture marks from previous needle insertions are visible across the skin. Red and green light falls across the performer, while photographs, the open notebook and used alcohol pads lie on the rug below.
The performer sits barefoot on a rug with their legs spread and bent, leaning forward around a handheld microphone held close to their mouth with both hands. Their hooded black-and-white butterfly-patterned garment falls around their torso and upper legs. Numerous golden butterflies are attached through needles inserted across one bare leg. Their eyes are lowered toward the rug as they speak into the microphone. Photographs of trans people who were murdered or died by suicide, printed pages, the notebook and used alcohol pads are spread around their body, while red and green light falls across the floor, clothing and skin.
Photography: 1, 3 - Levent Basaci, 2 - Can Yüksel

who has come, who has gone is an effort to bring into existence the loss of what is not allowed to live and to build a temple for those who died because of hate, and also an outcry that tries to mirror the normative world's own mess to its face.

Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, on a rug where they place the photos of trans people who were murdered and committed suicide, reads the collage text they gathered from news about murders and suicides and the perpetrators' testimonies that are collected through the lawyers of the LGBTI+ movement. After each death news, they insert a needle and one golden butterfly on their legs.

Wider, low-lit view of the performer seated barefoot on the floor amid photographs of trans people who were murdered or died by suicide, the notebook, printed pages and used alcohol pads. They bend over one raised bare leg, looking downward while both hands work with a needle and golden butterfly at the skin. Their hooded black-and-white butterfly-patterned garment drapes around their body, and multiple golden butterflies are already attached to the leg through inserted needles. A microphone lies on the floor beside them. Intense green light fills the left side of the room and crosses the performer’s body, while red light illuminates the opposite side and the materials spread across the floor.
Photography: Can Yüksel
Presentations
Lubunya Dispatches, curated by Erkan Affan and Queer Art Projects, ICA, London, UK, 2023
Unexpected Territories, Dream Pavilion performance program, curated by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, Murat Alat and Yekhan Pınarlıgil, TÜYAP Contemporary Art Fair, ARTIST 2016, Istanbul, TR, 2016
Credits
who has come, who has gone, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, performance, 6 days, 2 hours a day, 2016
Acknowledgment: Burak Serin, Derin Cankaya, Eren Keskin, Fırat Söyle, Kerem Dikmen, Rıza Yalçın Koçak, Sinem Hun, Yasemin Öz
Performance Necropolitics Grief Precarity Ghosts Non-Western Queerness Body Intervention Archival Intervention Archive Collective Memory
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