Nazlı Gürlek Hodder
Given States or What Would You Do?
2019
Mixed media installation, oil paint on canvas, copper, latex, foam, organic materials, dimensions variable
Various painted surfaces and three-dimensional elements come together to evoke the immersive vision of a post-patriarchal, healing, embodied and re-connected feminine world. Various fragmented body parts such as nipples and veins painted on large unprimed canvases with soil, oil paint and vegetable oils, come together with ready-mades such as copper bowls and dead tree branches. The installation is something between a shamanic ritual site and a performance set awaiting its potential activators.
The title is a playful reference to Marcel Duchamp's Étant Donnés (Given States) (1946-66) where a naked woman lying on her back is offered to the spectator's gaze through a peep hole. I respond to Duchamp's passive female body by restoring its agency as a living, healing, performing subject.
Installation views from "Nazlı Gürlek Hodder: In The Body", Evliyagil Dolapdere, Istanbul, November 07, 2020 - January 31, 2021