Access to public space: dyke lanes action/artwork

Silvana works with the ideas of access to public spaces. She is also interested in the regulation of public spaces – whether by authorities or social codes.

Silvana tackles these issues by performing actions in urban public spaces that push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and engage with public space in a way that is thought provoking and political.

In her work ‘Dyke lanes’ she applied lane markings to footpaths in urban areas which proclaimed them as Lesbian Lanes. In this way she explores unspoken rules of ‘public’ space such as: what is socially acceptable in ‘public’ space? Who polices it, and why? How difference is regulated and disallowed? And who is included and excluded from ‘public’ space? While also ‘making public’ the problems of Lesbian invisibility and the homophobic aspects of society that make public space an often violent and hostile space for those who diverge from the hetero status quo.