SENA BAŞÖZ
ON IMPERMANENCE :
Movement of Things
2023
The works featured in Sena Başöz’s solo exhibition, Inevitable Chroeography, on view from December 16th, 2023, to February 24th, 2024, at Zilberman Gallery Istanbul, delve into the cycles and movements of objects from the artist’s personal archive. These pieces evoke the interplay between the body and objects as they navigate space and time.
Başöz begins exploring movement as a means of regeneration through her performance piece Slalom (2022), which examines how a moving body can activate an institutional archive. Over time, the artist came to realize that, much like the human body, objects also possess movement. This reciprocal flow between the two creates a choreography that reflects the transient nature of existence.
Wind of Things
2023
The Artist's Bed - Four Chairs - Brown Sofa Set
Found furniture, fans and parachute fabric
Variable dimensions
Wind of Things is a series of installations that reimagine furniture as living artifacts. Strips of parachute fabric, attached to each piece, move in response to the wind created by strategically placed fans. This motion unfolds across time, suggesting the presence of past memories or the potential for movements yet to come. The work positions furniture as fragments of a personal archive, with the wind acting as a conduit for stories that emerge from these objects.
In one piece, the artist's bed hangs on the wall like a portrait, its parachute fabric radiating soft white rays, evoking a sense of stillness and light. A brown sofa set is stacked in a manner reminiscent of a serene landscape, with white fabric mimicking grass, while four chairs from the artist’s studio are scattered in the wind, their long fabric strips flowing through them looking like dream catchers.
For Başöz, movement is not just a transient quality of the living, but a powerful force that brings change.
G.After a Long Stroll
2002-2023
8 oil paintings on canvas made in 2002, one of which is in wrapping
50x70cm each
When an oil portrait young Başöz painted and dumped in trash turns up at an auction 20 years later, the artist begins to reflect deeply on the journey of objects. This seemingly personal but perhaps universal experience, reminding us of the cycles in life that come our way in different forms until they reach completion, not only reactivates the series titled G., After a Long Stroll (2002-2023), but also gives birth to brand new works. In Başöz’s new exhibition, we come across eight oil canvases hung on the wall in two rows. The portrait that strolls, circulates and returns is exhibited in a cargo package with a hole that falls on one of the eyes of the portrait. This eye looking at the viewer reminds us that what is lost, hidden, outmoded, or assumably unattainable operates with a sense of mourning beyond linear time (Text taken from "From Depths to Lightness: Notes on the New Exhibition of Sena Başöz" written by İpek Ulusoy Akgül for the exhibition catalogue).
Installation with an anchor, iron chain, rope, soft pastel on paper
Varying sizes
The Last Time I Saw the Anchor That Sank into the Sea and The Anchor That Emerged from the Sea Two Months Later (2023) is inspired by the artist’s experience of losing an anchor during a sea voyage in Bozurun in the summer of 2023. In response, Başöz immediately created a drawing capturing the moment she last saw the anchor sinking into the dark waters. Months later, the anchor was retrieved by a diver and is now installed in the exhibition space, displayed alongside the drawing of its disappearance.
The Last Letter of the Porcupine
2023
4 collages on paper using porcupine quills and envelopes
While walking in nature, the artist discovers the remains of a porcupine. These four collages represent an attempt to grasp the purpose of the porcupine through its remnants. For the artist, this process mirrors the act of using objects from a personal archive to tell stories. The rectangular shape of the envelope, a recurring metaphor in the artist’s work, symbolizes the rational mind—an inadequate tool when it comes to understanding the complexities of nature.
A Farewell to My Armour
2023
Procupine quills on wall
50x70cm
While walking in nature, the artist discovers the remains of a porcupine. Each quill stands as evidence of a past turmoil or a potential future terror that never came to pass. Arranged on a grid-like structure, matching the size of the portraits displayed on the wall, the artist poses multiple questions about what remains after life—and where art fits within this equation.
Autoportrait
2023
Acrylics on portrait photograps and a vintage fan
Varying sizes
Inevitable Choreography functions as a self-portrait, each work constituting a fragment of an elusive self. A key work consists of a domestic-scaled fan: attached to each blade is a photograph of the artist. As the fan turns, so do her many faces. She is one and all, and of course the inevitable time in between. Never seen for too long, the fan keeps turning (Text taken from "You’ve been in the House Too Long; On Sena Başőz’s Practice on the Occasion of Her Exhibition Inevitable Choreography" written by Maria-Thalia Carras for the exhibition catalogue).