The Queers’ Vernacular (Slanguage)

The Queers’ Vernacular (Slanguage)

The Queers’ Vernacular (Slanguage) is a community-based public artwork that brought together 2S/LGBTQIA+ artists and members of gender and sexuality support groups to explore language as a creative act and document generational shifts in verbal and visual signifiers.

Developed between 2020 and 2023, the project traces generational and multilingual transformations in spoken and visual expressions, drawing on contributions from community members aged 18 to 81 and representing fifteen different national backgrounds.

The resulting pocket-sized book emerges from this shared process, reimagining traditional dictionary formats through a contemporary perspective. Its non-linear entries assemble a collection of linguistic and emotional fragments that highlight how identity continually shifts. In addition to the printed text, the book contains a second, sensory layer: under sunlight, the participants’ own hidden notes, gestures, and handwritten marks become visible.

This performative reading echoes the process of “revealing oneself”—slow, personal, yet shared—and underscores that queer language is also a space where visibility itself is created.