Since the Industrial Revolution, floriography, the seemingly innocuous language of flowers, has proved to be the communication medium par excellence. Inspired by an act of resistance, Do you speak flower? explores the intersection between flowers and the secret communication of information.
During the Vietnam War, US Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton was taken as a prisoner of war. While in captivity, on May 2nd, 1966, he was interviewed by a Japanese reporter for North-Vietnamese propaganda. He described his situation in prison as “acceptable”, in his own terms. But while he pretended to be blinded by the camera’s strong lights, he winked out a continuous secret message in Morse code that said: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E – T-O-R-T-U-R-E”. The interview that was sold to ABC and broadcast in the USA on 17 May 1966 confirmed that prisoners of war were being tortured in Vietnam. Denton remained in prison until 1973. Exploring the duplicity of floriology, students worked as double agents to create floral images that convey political, feminist and queer messages.
Do you speak flower? was led by Master Space & Communication at HEAD – Genève, Geneva University of Art and Design in collaboration with ALUO, Ljubljana