Research Performance Instalation
In Her Shoes
In Her Shoes is a mixed-media installation that questions
the meaning of healing, conserving and destructing through different female-dominant art practices, including handicrafts, performance art, and feminine writing (écriture feminine).
the meaning of healing, conserving and destructing through different female-dominant art practices, including handicrafts, performance art, and feminine writing (écriture feminine).
In Her Shoes
Hosek Contemporary- Berlin
2023
Hosek Contemporary- Berlin
2023
The art
piece is composed of two parts. The first part is a video installation that
reflects seven healing and protection symbols in the form of
knitting patterns
from different civilizations.
These patterns are knitted by six female craftspeople into
wool booties as well as being interpreted by seven female
dancers via a performance within their domestic spaces, recorded through
their perspectives.
The
non-narrative film sequences focus on infinite encounters between individual
expression and collective memory, and are organized in the form of archetypal
shapes with fractal motion within - all serving
to imply the unchanging patterns within a world of flux.
to imply the unchanging patterns within a world of flux.
The second part is a video and text(ile) installation thatses an artist-crafted spoken poem as a sonic backdrop, while embodying it on a projected canvas in asemic writing form. The writing is a reflection of sexual expression, opening a freeplay of meanings and interpretations, while centering around the theme of the Home.
Specifically, the poem explores the search for a safe dwelling place - including different species, mythological figures and non-living beings. In listening to the words, the audience witnesses the construction and deconstruction of this dwelling place. Within the narrative arc, motions through darkness, encircled by a sense of discomfort, are eventually shifted towards acceptance and transformation. The ambivalent spatial composition of the installation, with bespoke sound design and a veil that blurs the interior and the exterior, reinforces an enveloping emotional landscape that is also feminine in nature.
Altogether, this multi-layered work critiques invisible labor as none of the main artistic branches can be seen directly (the booties, the performances, the embroidered poem) while exploring three types of healing: the acceptance of femininity, the therapeutic effect of repetition in movement, and the post-structural expression ingrained in feminine writing. And by knitting this exploration into a range of female-dominant artistic branches, it invites the viewer to reflect on the manifold interplays of identity construction and gender politics, through a needle, a pen and the body itself.
Video design: Ebru Gümrükçüoglu
Sound design: Aytaç Aybak
Performance: Dila Yumurtacı, Melek Nur Dudu, Merve Uzunosman, Merve Atılgan, Merve Pudre, Pınar Akyüz, Ülkü Çaglayan
Wool Craft: Ayfer Demir, Aynur Yazıcı, Emine Kara, Hatice Ferahlı, Havva Türkel, Nevruz Çiftçi
Exhibition Design: Selin Erdemirci
Graphic Design: Aleyna Tezel, Selin Erdemirci
Exhibition Venue: Hosek Contemporary Berlin
Exhibition Date: 14/04/2023- 23/04/2023
Documentation video: https://vimeo.com/697133552/6612128585
Download the exhibition proposition document.