Lot Essay
'My photographs and videos are based on masterpieces of Modern Turkish art history. Using myself as the model, I wear costumes and perform mimics and roles of the women whom we see in these paintings. The work entitled Lady With A Cigarette was inspired by the famous Turkish painter Ibrahim Calli's work from the 1920s entitled Portrait of a Woman, in which we see the depiction of a beautiful woman holding a cigarette and staring at us in a gloomy way. This depiction is a combination of the modern Ottoman-Turkish woman's image and the orientalist painting tradition. I follow myths about femininity and play with them. I see these roles such as costumes which can be worn; removable, transportable. This process forces myths to disclose and helps myths to betray themselves.'
(Özlem Simsek, 2012.)
(Özlem Simsek, 2012.)