‘Behind Mount Qaf’: A Mystical, Symbolic, Enticing Universe by Artist CANAN
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Arter exhibition gallery will present the exhibition entitled "Behind Mount Qaf", by artist CANAN. The exhibition is named after the legendary Mount Qaf of Arabic and Persian cosmology and includes artist CANAN's works produced in various media, such as sculpture, photography, print, embroidery, video, installation, and miniature.
The solo exhibition is curated by Nazlı Gürlek and will be open for visitors from September 12 to December 24, 2017.
The exhibition brings together new works CANAN produced especially for this exhibition along with a number of earlier works, some of which are shown for the first time ever. Unfolding across Arter's three gallery floors, "Behind Mount Qaf" constitutes a comprehensive overview of the artist's practice.
The exhibition is named after the legendary Mount Qaf of Arabic and Persian cosmology and includes works produced in various media, such as sculpture, photography, print, embroidery, video, installation, and miniature. "Behind Mount Qaf" proposes a reading of the artist's practice through the themes of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. CANAN's new works focus on dualisms such as light/shadow, good/bad, internal/external, reality/imaginary, lightness/darkness, and tackle the repressed aspects of the human psyche in the form of supernatural creatures, the jinn and archetypical figures, culminating in a multidimensional, mystical, symbolic, and rather enticing universe.
"Cybele"
The photograph titled "Cybele" (2000), which greets the viewer on the ground floor, is a self-portrait exhibited for the first time and represents the mother goddess through the artist's own body. Miniatures titled "Shahmaran" (2011) and "Şehretün'nar" (2011), the mother of all jinn, once again depicted by the artist using her own face, guide the viewer through different states of consciousness on the three exhibition floors conceptualised as Heaven (ground floor), Purgatory (floor 1), and Hell (floor 2).
"Behind Mount Qaf", "Animal Kingdom"
The first of the many spatial installations in "Behind Mount Qaf", "Animal Kingdom" (2017) is a site-specific work produced for this exhibition and is located on the ground floor. Covered in brightly coloured and sequined fabrics, animals, and creatures such as dragons, serpents, and the phoenix, all of which exist only in fairy tales, fill up the gallery space overlooking Istiklal Street. Visible both from the outside through the gallery window and from within the exhibition space itself, this installation connects the interior and the exterior in a world of fantasy.
"Burgazada"
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Bird Woman, 2017
Installation
Natural stone, stone carving
Photo: Murat Germen
The work titled "Heaven" (2017) reaches down from the ceiling in the form of a cylinder made of tulle; rotating slowly around its own axis, it establishes links between the visible and the invisible, the real and the imaginary worlds, through a play of light and shadow. In the installation, as the male and female figures revolve in the cylinder accompanied by the seven colours of the rainbow and fairy tale-like creatures, the shadows of their naked bodies linger on the walls. The masculine and feminine qualities blend into one another, and as we approach them they start to intermingle with our shadows as well. Meanwhile, the installation "Purgatory" (2017) construes the same setup on Arter's first floor; but this time through the theme of Purgatory. Dominated by various shades of grey, the tulle installation relates the tale of a character that flows out of the darkness in the company of birds and angels.
"Heaven"
Heaven, 2017
Sculpture
Tulle, sequins, rope, cloth, bell, light, motor
Photo: Murat Germen
The work titled "Heaven" (2017) reaches down from the ceiling in the form of a cylinder made of tulle; rotating slowly around its own axis, it establishes links between the visible and the invisible, the real and the imaginary worlds, through a play of light and shadow. In the installation, as the male and female figures revolve in the cylinder accompanied by the seven colours of the rainbow and fairy tale-like creatures, the shadows of their naked bodies linger on the walls. The masculine and feminine qualities blend into one another, and as we approach them they start to intermingle with our shadows as well. Meanwhile, the installation "Purgatory" (2017) construes the same setup on Arter's first floor; but this time through the theme of Purgatory. Dominated by various shades of grey, the tulle installation relates the tale of a character that flows out of the darkness in the company of birds and angels.
"Wonders of Creation"
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There's So Much Evil Out There, 2017
Installation
Bed in a room, bedside cabinet, embroidered bedding and wall writing
Photo: Murat Germen
The book that accompanies the exhibition includes Nazlı Gürlek's curatorial introduction and new commissioned essays by Kathy Battista, Tuğba Taş and Derya Yücel, all of which addressing the artist's practice from different perspectives.
PS: Guided exhibition tours will be organised at regular intervals throughout the duration of CANAN's exhibition "Behind Mount Qaf". Viewers will also have the opportunity to receive detailed information about CANAN's works using the audio guides available free of charge.
ABOUT CANAN
She has become one of the more well known artists for her works that revolve around the feminist issues that arise in Islamic society. Her artistic point of view is meant to question institutions such as government, family, society, and religion and examine how those institutions affect the private lives of women. Her goal in her works is to not only expose the roles and situations that women find themselves placed in, but to also place men and women on the same level and create art that questions why institutions and the public as a whole views the male gender as dominant. |
(HK/DG)