The work “The Folk of Suspicious Morality” originates from patched Slavonian ponjave – traditional woven blankets associated with wishes for happiness and fertility within marriage. Structured around erotic symbols within a conservative environment, ponjave function as a space of subtle sexual freedom.

A tradition that offers traces of liberation to the majority simultaneously excludes groups whose experiences do not fit within a heteronormative framework. This work intervenes precisely in that absence by constructing a speculative ethnographic imaginary: what would ponjave from LGBTQ+ households look like? What would they tell us about the lives of queer folk within traditional communities?

The textile objects in the work function as hybrid artifacts that draw on the aesthetic principles of tradition while transforming them through the introduction of suggestive queer iconography. The strategic gesture of the work lies in retroactively inscribing queer identities into an ethnographic framework.

By using fiction as a critical tool, the work simultaneously creates an alternative tradition and a future body of ethnographic material.