Statement
My work moves between painting, drawing, sculpture, costume, and performance. Although these forms may appear quite different, I have never thought of them as separate practices. They are different expressions of the same imaginative world, a world centered on womanhood in its many forms.
This world moves freely between mythology and contemporary life. Goddesses coexist with women who embrace their sensuality, enjoy their bodies, celebrate their freedom, and take pleasure in being alive. The Goddess is not a single figure but an idea of womanhood that can assume many identities.
My paintings, Pages from the Diary of the Goddess, record fragments of this imagined world: places she has visited, things she loves, memories, desires, discoveries, and pleasures. Each painting is a page from a diary that has no beginning or end.
In my installations I bring together paintings, large-scale digital drawings, sculptural textile vessels, and costumes, activated through a live performance. Rather than presenting separate series, I want to create an environment in which these works inhabit the same world, revealing relationships that may not be apparent when they are seen individually.
Transformation and illusion are central to my practice. I am interested in making things look like what they are not. In my paintings, tiny acrylic circles suggest beads, embroidery, and jewelry, while color creates volume without conventional light and shadow. My vessels, made entirely from felt and traditional Turkish printed cotton flannel (pazen), stand without internal supports, suggesting the solidity of ceramics while retaining the softness of textiles. My costumes become sculptural presences, closer to myth than fashion.
Performance allows me to enter this world physically. By wearing the costumes myself, I become part of the installation, bringing an imagined presence into the same space as the viewer. When the performance ends, the costumes remain as traces of that encounter.
Color and movement have always been my lifeline. Through sensuality, humor, exuberance, and visual surprise, I celebrate the pleasures of being alive.
I try to bring these different expressions together into a single environment, allowing a world that has developed throughout my practice to be experienced as a whole.
Here is a brief description of my work:
I will start with my inspiration and its history: Sumerbank was a group of state-run enterprises which produced many consumer goods, like textiles, garments, shoes, ceramics, from the early decades of the republic up until the end of the century. We had a closed economy at the time and there were no imports to speak of. So, we were completely at the mercy of Sumerbank, which meant we had a love hate relationship with these stores because they did not produce what we wanted, like jeans or sneakers; but they provided us with most everything we needed. They produced goods for all segments of society, which were very well made, reasonably priced and lasted a long time. These factories were later closed and do not exist anymore, except for this one store I still visit frequently to look at and buy fabrics. Whenever I went there, I noticed all the memories and sensations each fabric pattern awakened in me.
I felt like I was watching a movie of my life remembering situations and people long forgotten, or old Turkish movies where the characters would be dressed in clothes made of these fabrics, the rich boss, the cleaning lady... By that time, I had amassed quite a collection, so I decided to use it in my work. Since these fabrics were mostly worn by the poorer segments of society, which meant that these women were invisible to the mainstream media and the male gaze, I decided to honor them by creating Goddess outfits out of the fabrics they wore. The first one I made I called The Sumerbank Goddess. I also made Goddess wall hangings using the same fabrics. The male pajama fabric which I cut to look like lace, I attached on all the wall hangings, as a symbol of the patriarchal culture we live in.
Nonetheless the source of all this work remains in my paintings which are inspired by all kinds of “Woman’s work” such as embroidery, stitching, knitting, beadwork and oya, which is a kind of embroidery done in Turkey. To the paintings were added the marbling do on long pieces of paper. I stitch pieces of lace, artificial flowers, and girl child toys using wool, onto them. I also “embroider” them with paint like I do in my paintings. Marbling is also a traditional Turkish technique but I have created my own free style. These pieces are then hung like laundry on wires stretched between metal rods sunk into concrete poured into olive oil cans, which is a widely used item in shanty towns all around Turkey.
So, the format of my installation would be as follows:
1. Paintings,
2. In front of the paintings the works on paper
3. The Goddess outfits on manikins
4. Costumes designed by me on performers in movement.
Our performance “Cycle of the Goddess” reenacts the seasons and the passage of time as the “Goddess as Maiden” awakens her Heros, then the “Goddess as Mother” weds him and the “Goddess as Crone” lays him to rest to be awakened in the Spring once again when the action is resumed.
At the closing of my show in New York at the Phatory Gallery, I had a Henna Night performance except the bride was male and he danced with the male pajama fabric as his groom.
The reactions to my shows have been very moving. In Turkey these fabrics had the same effect on the viewers as they had on me. People recognized fabrics and remembered people they knew who used to wear them with stories and memories. In New York, African American viewers saw similarities to their own beautiful fabrics and the Goddess outfits reminded them of Orishas.
Thank you for your time.
Suzan Batu