Hale Tenger, Magic is the Mirror of a Deer, 2019
Video, cylindrical aluminum container, museum glass, rear projection vinyl screen, mirror
Ø: 51.5 cm, d: 60.5 cm, Edition of 3
Tenger has been actively working for thirty years now and has exhibited at various biennials including the Istanbul Biennial and 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. The porosity of her works, which often carry themes of identity and power is worth ruminating on. First shown at Artpace San Antonio in 1997 (and later, reincarnated for SALT’s 2015 exhibition, “How Did We Get Here”) The Closet makes one immediately feel the overall atmosphere of Turkey in 1980s—a suffocating sense of oppression bleeding from public spaces into private ones. So does the wooden guard house-space of We didn’t go outside; we were always on the outside / We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside. First exhibited at the 4th Istanbul Biennial in 1995 (and reconstructed for Arter last year), the wooden house oozes with unease—as if the righteous “owner” of the desolate cabin may show up any minute.
Read the interview on the link below.