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Gul
CAGIN: Corresponding to both concrete reality
and invisible interiority
Art
Statement
My work embraces variety of media ranging from installation
performances, video projections to drawings and paintings.
My objects act as surrogates for the absent bodies invoking
the sublimated and the regressed subjects. To this end,
I estrange the familiar objects related to the body
and to the domestic space. Estrangement is achieved
sometimes with the alteration of the normal objects
or with the cancellation of its function, for example;
in one of my installations, the bathroom fixtures unlike
the real life fixtures are at the verge of collapsing
due to the material that has been used. Touch of the
eerie or the pathetic is a part of my work to emphasize
the erosion of the subjects. My performances usually
stage broken boundaries of the violated body and the
alienated self, the other.
Slaughter
House
I am interested in exploring the process in which how
the bodies are socially, culturally, sexually and psychologically
constructed and, in turn, how the bodies project themselves
into their environment. Neither the body nor the environment
is isolated entities. Their relationships are dynamic
and their interactions manifest themselves in various
ways. In my recent projects, to articulate the relationships
between the body and its environment, I employed mixture
of materials relating to body, architecture and furniture
-chairs, tables, clothing, fabric, wood, motor, sound,
video and so forth. - These objects partially refer to reality
to create some familiarity in minds so that one can
easily access to the work. Choice of materials is also
an important component of my work. I choose materials
that are able to invoke bodily senses as well as visual
ones. The
various parts of my work seem to be twofold: corresponding
to both concrete reality and invisible interiority.
Narrow
Room
In "Narrow Room" I subjected the furniture to
an imaginary architectural experiment: My proposal was
that what happens to the furniture if I were to push the
walls of a room from both sides toward each other. The
result is a narrow room and narrow furniture. The narrow
furniture embodies not only literal but psychological
reduction of space. To imply the psychological narrowness
of the space, I placed my body in the work. I stood next
to the furniture and lied under the table to map my movements
within the perimeter of the work. I drew my footprints
and my body's touches to the walls to indicate the difficulty
of moving freely within this space.
"In-Between
Walls" and "False Houses" reflect
the interiority of the female body by creating forms that
appear to be a labyrinthine accumulation of found and
fabricated objects. The miniature shelf-like structures
in "In-Between Walls" refer to modernist architecture
and imply the hybrid structure of female interiority.
Fragmented and divided there is nothing inside in these
structures but only void. "False Houses" are
made of cardboards altering the precise measurement of
the architectural projects. The doors are placed on the
roof; the chimney located on the sidewall; in short, everything
is located in the wrong place. Entrance and exit is denied
to indicate the psychological experience of the domestic
space.
Specific
Land, II
"In-Specific Land" is a collaborative
project between me and another artist Lucy G. It is
a video projection on the fences. In the actual video,
Lucy takes a walk with her dog in a specific neighborhood.
The houses are fenced relentlessly reflecting the owner's
need for security and the paranoia that comes with this
mood. Later we projected this video on the fences that
built for the gallery space. With the help of the two
mirrors the screen is expanded and projected on to the
curved fences.
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