Selenay Tektunali

This time in my practice you see my alter ego: a baddie with a bad passport. She is an influencer, a glitchy diva, a pop icon. You might question if she is AI generated or real. She is born from anger at visa applications, border control, and restricted movement.

She just wants to travel around Europe without thinking about bureaucracy. She wants to flirt. She wants a good time. No forms. No waiting. She wants lipstick prints on French cheeks, not fingerprints in government systems. She is exhausted by being made “legible.” She is angry because she needs biometric photos just to take a selfie with the Eiffel Tower.

She gives advice for visa applications. But it is also performance. Through social media and live presence, she becomes a guide for people with “bad passports.” She asks who gets to move freely. Who gets stopped. Who decides which papers matter.

She has an Instagram @baddiewithabadpassport. She has a Hinge profile. In France she met French baddies on the Riviera through Hinge. The performance never ends. Life becomes content. Content becomes survival. Survival becomes flirtation.

Internet culture shapes my aesthetics and methods. I am influenced by queer online spaces, glitch feminism, influencer culture, algorithms, doomscrolling, and short form overload. I work with TikTok language. Scrolling. Repetition. Clickbait. Ads. Broken attention.

I am drawn to objects like high heels, leopard print, selfie sticks, phones, and typewriters. They become tools to embody power. They stage the body. They stage identity. They blur influencer, performer, CEO, and scammer.